INN346 Wiki inn346_wiki https://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page MediaWiki 1.35.13 first-letter Media Special Talk User User talk INN346 Wiki INN346 Wiki talk File File talk MediaWiki MediaWiki talk Template Template talk Help Help talk Category Category talk UserWiki UserWiki talk User profile User profile talk Module Module talk Gadget Gadget talk Gadget definition Gadget definition talk 6 1 1 2014-09-07T05:32:36Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 2 1 2014-09-07T05:34:30Z Callam Porch 3383056 Callam Porch uploaded a new version of &quot;[[File:Wiki.png]]&quot; wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 3 2 2014-09-07T05:46:15Z Callam Porch 3383056 Callam Porch uploaded a new version of &quot;[[File:Wiki.png]]&quot; wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 8 2 4 2014-09-07T06:08:52Z Callam Porch 3383056 Created page with " * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges ** randompage-url|randompage ** about|About ** helppage|Wiki help * SEARCH * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES" wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges ** randompage-url|randompage ** about|About ** helppage|Wiki help * SEARCH * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES 72750dc572b28a3479868543fee4543541b47174 5 4 2014-09-07T06:09:38Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges ** randompage-url|randompage ** aboutpage|About ** helppage|Wiki help * SEARCH * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES a908d4f925702b920a5e37a3910eed32cbc7fe3e 6 5 2014-09-07T06:12:03Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges ** randompage-url|randompage ** aboutpage|About this wiki ** helppage|Wiki help * SEARCH * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES 0f9551dfe242fefaa8b11bd155d3e0aae3c49480 7 6 2014-09-07T06:12:51Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges ** randompage-url|randompage ** aboutpage|About this wiki ** helppage|Wiki help 37320e2ee2e7efac4d8dd176101cf8ac0179027c 8 7 2014-09-07T06:13:10Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges ** randompage-url|randompage ** aboutpage|About this wiki ** helppage|Wiki help * SEARCH * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES 0f9551dfe242fefaa8b11bd155d3e0aae3c49480 9 8 2014-09-07T06:13:46Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges ** aboutpage|About this wiki ** helppage|Wiki help * SEARCH * TOOLBOX ** randompage-url|randompage * LANGUAGES 4e5d1428b01ab16fa02f761cadb78f170aa884a3 10 9 2014-09-07T06:15:38Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** contents|Contents ** aboutpage|About this wiki ** helppage|Wiki help * SEARCH ** randompage-url|randompage ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES 524d19049545bbe811b3743c9bf0ec17d4ca53c4 11 10 2014-09-07T06:18:23Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** contents|Contents ** aboutpage|About this wiki *interaction ** helppage|Wiki help ** randompage-url|randompage ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges * SEARCH * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES 51e23678774592e65dc506f58b14a308e8068147 12 11 2014-09-07T06:19:14Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki * navigation ** mainpage|mainpage-description ** contents|Contents ** aboutpage|About this wiki *Interaction ** helppage|Wiki help ** randompage-url|randompage ** recentchanges-url|recentchanges * SEARCH * TOOLBOX * LANGUAGES d83a8857dded6d185f1e0bdad9651aef8d554ed8 8 3 13 2014-09-07T06:22:13Z Callam Porch 3383056 Created page with "This wiki will be open for contributions and editing by the INN346 students until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 24 September 2014." wikitext text/x-wiki This wiki will be open for contributions and editing by the INN346 students until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 24 September 2014. 92113d48e61d5256db980e864c28fa97aac907bb 14 13 2014-09-07T06:23:02Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki '''This wiki will be open for contributions and editing by the INN346 students until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 24 September 2014.''' 217f6fafdc25667d01baa2037db023148a4e1465 15 14 2014-09-07T06:23:32Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki '''This wiki closes at 11:59pm on Wednesday, 24 September 2014.''' 6c726a41f04f3f4b34bbd6f46d989732da44b7e7 16 15 2014-09-07T06:23:59Z Callam Porch 3383056 Blanked the page wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 4 4 17 2014-09-07T07:13:31Z Callam Porch 3383056 Created page with "This wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 during Semester 2 (2014) at QUT to collectively develop a learning component based on a crowd-sourced topic as th..." wikitext text/x-wiki This wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 during Semester 2 (2014) at QUT to collectively develop a learning component based on a crowd-sourced topic as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2. As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] each post-graduate student who has chosen this activity are to "shape the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component (this single wiki) that: • Contributes to the wider experience of the class • Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0 • Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way." The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic, with 50% of the votes, was about examining the new generation of integrated enterprise social platforms, e.g. IBM Connections and Microsoft SharePoint (with associated add-ons). This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group, so you can experience some of a Wiki's social technology affordances we have discussed. Please use the numerous social features provided within a Wiki and our Google+ community to help you do this. I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major all-in-one enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: * What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? (Note, it's not Twitter and Facebook! I'm talking about large-scale and feature-rich "all-in-one" platforms. Review the Week 5 lecture as a starting point...) * Who are the major players? (Note, you might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) * What are the features of these platforms? * Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (Don't just use the marketing hype, please critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed.) * Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) * Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? * What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc. Just to be clear, you are all to create, review and maintain content for this one wiki... not your own wiki somewhere else! Once the wiki closes at 11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014, I will assess your individual level of contribution against the criteria. Think of it like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done, but we can see exactly who's done what. If there are any questions or issues please contact me via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). ee91c74d22daa1d2e5f07be26a385d2ec5972ae5 18 17 2014-09-07T07:15:43Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki This wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 during Semester 2 (2014) at QUT to collectively develop a learning component based on a crowd-sourced topic as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2. == The Objectives == As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] each post-graduate student who has chosen this activity are to "''shape the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component (this single wiki) that'': ''* Contributes to the wider experience of the class * Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0 * Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" == The Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic, with 50% of the votes, was about examining the new generation of integrated enterprise social platforms, e.g. IBM Connections and Microsoft SharePoint (with associated add-ons). This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group, so you can experience some of a Wiki's social technology affordances we have discussed. Please use the numerous social features provided within a Wiki and our Google+ community to help you do this. I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major all-in-one enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: * What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? (Note, it's not Twitter and Facebook! I'm talking about large-scale and feature-rich "all-in-one" platforms. Review the Week 5 lecture as a starting point...) * Who are the major players? (Note, you might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) * What are the features of these platforms? * Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (Don't just use the marketing hype, please critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed.) * Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) * Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? * What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc. == Final Notes == Just to be clear, you are all to create, review and maintain content for this one wiki... not your own wiki somewhere else! Once the wiki closes at 11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014, I will assess your individual level of contribution against the criteria. Think of it like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done, but we can see exactly who's done what. If there are any questions or issues please contact me via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). 796287154d8614e78339bc542f5faaa1abfbdd5e 19 18 2014-09-07T07:22:34Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki This wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 during Semester 2 (2014) at QUT to collectively develop a learning component based on a crowd-sourced topic as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2. == The Objectives == As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] each post-graduate student who has chosen this activity is to demonstrate how they: "''...shaped the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component that: * Contributes to the wider experience of the class * Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0 * Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group, so you can experience some of a Wiki's social technology affordances we have discussed. Please use the numerous social features provided within a Wiki and our Google+ community to help you do this. == The Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic with 50% of the votes was "''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?''". I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major all-in-one enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: * What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? (Note, it's not Twitter and Facebook! I'm talking about large-scale and feature-rich "all-in-one" platforms. Review the Week 5 lecture as a starting point...) * Who are the major players? (Note, you might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) * What are the features of these platforms? * Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (Don't just use the marketing hype, please critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed.) * Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) * Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? * What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc. From there you can branch off into other appropriate topics to fill out this wiki. == Final Notes == Just to be clear, you are all to create, review and maintain content for this one central wiki... not your own wiki somewhere else! Once the wiki closes at 11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014, I will assess your individual level of contribution against the criteria. Think of it like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done but we can see exactly who's done what. Hopefully, this site will become a great information source on these platforms for the whole class. If there are any questions or issues please contact me via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). 420ffd88245576955bd6bac94fb1faba4a93c620 20 19 2014-09-07T07:42:14Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki This Wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 at QUT to collectively develop a learning component as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2 during Semester 2, 2014. == Objective == For the students that have chosen this option you are to '''create''', '''review''' and '''maintain''' content for this wiki as a collective group. As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] you are to demonstrate through this activity how you've: "''...shaped the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component that:'' ''• Contributes to the wider experience of the class'' ''• Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0'' ''• Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group. By using the features of this wiki (which is based on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki]) you can experience first-hand some of a the social technology affordances we have discussed and one of the most popular open source Wiki formats. Your individual level of contribution against the criteria will be assessed after the wiki closes at '''11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014'''. Think of this like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done but we can see exactly who's done what. == Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic with 50% of the votes was "''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?''". I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major 'all-in-one' enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: * What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? (Note, it's not Twitter and Facebook! I'm talking about large-scale and feature-rich "all-in-one" platforms. Review the Week 5 lecture as a starting point...) * Who are the major players? (Note, you might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) * What are the features of these platforms? * Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (Don't just use the marketing hype, please critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed.) * Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) * Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? * What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc. From there you can branch off into other appropriate topics to fill out this wiki. == Final Notes == Just to be clear, '''you are all to create, review and maintain content for this one central wiki and not your own individual wiki somewhere else'''! Hopefully, this site will become a great information source on these platforms for the whole class. If there are any questions or issues please contact me via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). f1cb5c0e5aff29ad1a7f04f2df2c5e50222e688a 21 20 2014-09-07T08:08:19Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki This Wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 at QUT to collectively develop a learning component as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2 during Semester 2, 2014. == Objective == For the students that have chosen this option you are to '''create''', '''review''' and '''maintain''' content for this wiki as a collective group for the benefit of the class. As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] you are to demonstrate through this activity how you've: "''...shaped the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component that:'' ''• Contributes to the wider experience of the class'' ''• Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0'' ''• Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group. By using the features of this wiki (which is based on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki]) you can experience first-hand some of a the social technology affordances we have discussed and the most popular open source Wiki software. Your individual level of contribution against the criteria will be assessed after the wiki closes at '''11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014'''. Think of this like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done but we can see exactly who's done what! == Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic with 50% of the votes was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''". I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major 'all-in-one' enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: * What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? (Note, it's not Twitter and Facebook! I'm talking about large-scale and feature-rich "all-in-one" platforms. Review the Week 5 lecture as a starting point...) * Who are the major players? (Note, you might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) * What are the features of these platforms? * Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (Don't just use the marketing hype, please critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed.) * Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) * Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? * What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc. From there you can branch off into other appropriate topics to fill out this wiki. == Final Notes == '''DO NOT''' create your own individual wiki somewhere else, please edit this one as part of the collective group with the username I've provided you. '''DO NOT''' just copy and paste content from other online sources with out proper citation, this is plagiarism and will be dealt with as per the [http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_03.jsp QUT policy]. The [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite MediaWiki Cite] extension has been installed so please reference your sources appropriately using [http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/cite/qutcite.jsp#numbered QUT Numbered Style], for example '... as outlined by the American Medical Association.<ref>American Medical Association. AMA: helping doctors help patients [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2007 [cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/</ref>' If there are any questions or issues '''please contact me''' via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). ==References== <references /> 2bf1563733a5012e41bd273d4755c1a5c1f34668 22 21 2014-09-07T08:10:28Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[INN346 Wiki:About]]" ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki This Wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 at QUT to collectively develop a learning component as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2 during Semester 2, 2014. == Objective == For the students that have chosen this option you are to '''create''', '''review''' and '''maintain''' content for this wiki as a collective group for the benefit of the class. As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] you are to demonstrate through this activity how you've: "''...shaped the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component that:'' ''• Contributes to the wider experience of the class'' ''• Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0'' ''• Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group. By using the features of this wiki (which is based on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki]) you can experience first-hand some of a the social technology affordances we have discussed and the most popular open source Wiki software. Your individual level of contribution against the criteria will be assessed after the wiki closes at '''11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014'''. Think of this like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done but we can see exactly who's done what! == Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic with 50% of the votes was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''". I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major 'all-in-one' enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: * What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? (Note, it's not Twitter and Facebook! I'm talking about large-scale and feature-rich "all-in-one" platforms. Review the Week 5 lecture as a starting point...) * Who are the major players? (Note, you might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) * What are the features of these platforms? * Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (Don't just use the marketing hype, please critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed.) * Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) * Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? * What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc. From there you can branch off into other appropriate topics to fill out this wiki. == Final Notes == '''DO NOT''' create your own individual wiki somewhere else, please edit this one as part of the collective group with the username I've provided you. '''DO NOT''' just copy and paste content from other online sources with out proper citation, this is plagiarism and will be dealt with as per the [http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_03.jsp QUT policy]. The [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite MediaWiki Cite] extension has been installed so please reference your sources appropriately using [http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/cite/qutcite.jsp#numbered QUT Numbered Style], for example '... as outlined by the American Medical Association.<ref>American Medical Association. AMA: helping doctors help patients [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2007 [cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/</ref>' If there are any questions or issues '''please contact me''' via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). ==References== <references /> 2bf1563733a5012e41bd273d4755c1a5c1f34668 23 22 2014-09-07T08:13:53Z Callam Porch 3383056 /* Topic */ wikitext text/x-wiki This Wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 at QUT to collectively develop a learning component as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2 during Semester 2, 2014. == Objective == For the students that have chosen this option you are to '''create''', '''review''' and '''maintain''' content for this wiki as a collective group for the benefit of the class. As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] you are to demonstrate through this activity how you've: "''...shaped the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component that:'' ''• Contributes to the wider experience of the class'' ''• Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0'' ''• Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group. By using the features of this wiki (which is based on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki]) you can experience first-hand some of a the social technology affordances we have discussed and the most popular open source Wiki software. Your individual level of contribution against the criteria will be assessed after the wiki closes at '''11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014'''. Think of this like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done but we can see exactly who's done what! == Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic with 50% of the votes was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''". I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major 'all-in-one' enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: * What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? (Note, it's not Twitter and Facebook! I'm talking about large-scale and feature-rich "all-in-one" platforms. Review the Week 5 lecture as a starting point...) * Who are the major players? (Note, you might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) * What are the features of these platforms? * Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (Don't just use the marketing hype, please critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed.) * Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) * Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? * What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc. From there you can branch off into other appropriate topics to fill out this wiki. == Final Notes == '''DO NOT''' create your own individual wiki somewhere else, please edit this one as part of the collective group with the username I've provided you. '''DO NOT''' just copy and paste content from other online sources with out proper citation, this is plagiarism and will be dealt with as per the [http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_03.jsp QUT policy]. The [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite MediaWiki Cite] extension has been installed so please reference your sources appropriately using [http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/cite/qutcite.jsp#numbered QUT Numbered Style], for example '... as outlined by the American Medical Association.<ref>American Medical Association. AMA: helping doctors help patients [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2007 [cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/</ref>' If there are any questions or issues '''please contact me''' via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). ==References== <references /> 39aac9e3f4a03b8ee495145a0758af820f75ba01 24 23 2014-09-07T08:24:13Z Callam Porch 3383056 /* Topic */ wikitext text/x-wiki This Wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 at QUT to collectively develop a learning component as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2 during Semester 2, 2014. == Objective == For the students that have chosen this option you are to '''create''', '''review''' and '''maintain''' content for this wiki as a collective group for the benefit of the class. As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] you are to demonstrate through this activity how you've: "''...shaped the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component that:'' ''• Contributes to the wider experience of the class'' ''• Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0'' ''• Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group. By using the features of this wiki (which is based on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki]) you can experience first-hand some of a the social technology affordances we have discussed and the most popular open source Wiki software. Your individual level of contribution against the criteria will be assessed after the wiki closes at '''11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014'''. Think of this like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done but we can see exactly who's done what! == Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic with 50% of the votes was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''". I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major 'all-in-one' enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; white-space: -o-pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"> • What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? • Who are the major players? (You might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) • What are the features of these platforms? • Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed) • Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) • Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? • What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? (This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc.) </pre> From there you can branch off into other appropriate topics to fill out this wiki. == Final Notes == '''DO NOT''' create your own individual wiki somewhere else, please edit this one as part of the collective group with the username I've provided you. '''DO NOT''' just copy and paste content from other online sources with out proper citation, this is plagiarism and will be dealt with as per the [http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_03.jsp QUT policy]. The [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite MediaWiki Cite] extension has been installed so please reference your sources appropriately using [http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/cite/qutcite.jsp#numbered QUT Numbered Style], for example '... as outlined by the American Medical Association.<ref>American Medical Association. AMA: helping doctors help patients [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2007 [cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/</ref>' If there are any questions or issues '''please contact me''' via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). ==References== <references /> d1e54b4c638192dc4825eee1cccf224e3d70325b 25 24 2014-09-07T08:25:48Z Callam Porch 3383056 /* Final Notes */ wikitext text/x-wiki This Wiki is a space for the post-graduate students in INN346 at QUT to collectively develop a learning component as their Leadership Activity in Portfolio #2 during Semester 2, 2014. == Objective == For the students that have chosen this option you are to '''create''', '''review''' and '''maintain''' content for this wiki as a collective group for the benefit of the class. As per the [https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContentEditable.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_5507164_1%26course_id%3D_113487_1 assessment criteria] you are to demonstrate through this activity how you've: "''...shaped the structure, design, production, or delivery of a component that:'' ''• Contributes to the wider experience of the class'' ''• Assists with enhancing the class’s understanding of key concepts related to the field of Enterprise 2.0'' ''• Demonstrates your leadership, creativity, and professionalism in an appropriate and helpful way.''" This is worth 20 marks of Portfolio #2 for the INN346 students and therefore should be given significant consideration. The structure and maintenance of this resource is to be guided by you as a collective student group. By using the features of this wiki (which is based on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki]) you can experience first-hand some of a the social technology affordances we have discussed and the most popular open source Wiki software. Your individual level of contribution against the criteria will be assessed after the wiki closes at '''11:59pm on Friday 26 September, 2014'''. Think of this like the biggest distributed group assignment you've ever done but we can see exactly who's done what! == Topic == The topic was chosen from a [https://app.gosoapbox.com/ GoSoapBox] poll (Event Code: 602-383-656) conducted during Week 7. The most popular topic with 50% of the votes was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''". I am expecting to see a deep exploration of the major 'all-in-one' enterprise social technology platforms given how many students are pursuing this option. I propose you research and answer the following as a starting point if you need guidance: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; white-space: -o-pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"> • What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? • Who are the major players? (You might need to utilise your collective definition from point one to comprise this list.) • What are the features of these platforms? • Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? (critically think about this in relation to the theory we've discussed) • Are these platforms being successfully implemented? (This could be a series of case studies...) • Are there any examples that haven't been successful? Why weren't they successful? • What is the future for these enterprise social platforms? (This can be from a variety of perspectives, e.g. technology, business, social, etc.) </pre> From there you can branch off into other appropriate topics to fill out this wiki. == Final Notes == '''DO NOT''' create your own individual wiki somewhere else, please edit this one as part of the collective group with the username I've provided you. '''DO NOT''' just copy and paste content from other online sources with out proper citation, this is plagiarism and will be dealt with as per the [http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_03.jsp QUT policy]. The [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite MediaWiki Cite] extension has been installed so please reference your sources appropriately using [http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/cite/qutcite.jsp#numbered QUT Numbered Style], for example "''... as outlined by the American Medical Association.<ref>American Medical Association. AMA: helping doctors help patients [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2007 [cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/</ref>''" If there are any questions or issues '''please contact me''' via all the usual methods (e.g. Email, Google+ and Phone). ==References== <references /> 460f198980e34c39d8a98acbc1e3168144102576 0 5 26 2014-09-07T08:34:47Z Callam Porch 3383056 Created page with "==Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?== Note that this is your wiki to m..." wikitext text/x-wiki ==Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?== Note that this is your wiki to manage, including this page! If you need more direction please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] and [[Help:Contents| Help]] pages, start a discussion with your colleagues or contact me. 5df515c8fc03ab44f38afc96ae2ebb17e081d758 27 26 2014-09-07T08:38:10Z Callam Porch 3383056 /* Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki ===Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?=== This is your wiki to manage, including this page! If you need more direction please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] and [[Help:Contents| Help]] pages, start a discussion with your colleagues or contact me. There are a number of useful links on the sidebar. 4f375eaf50990bee02630c8d0a4e98c11132ddde 28 27 2014-09-07T08:39:07Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki ===Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?=== This is your wiki to manage, including this page! If you need more direction please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] and [[Help:Contents| Help]] pages, ask your colleagues or contact me. 6b93ae3a167188eac0da80051862a519fc546818 29 28 2014-09-07T09:09:03Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki ===...and the winner was "Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"=== This is your wiki to manage, including this page! If you need more direction please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] and [[Help:Contents| Help]] pages, ask your colleagues or contact me. b693011fbaad95b9ba40793e65de785dbad06bf4 30 29 2014-09-07T23:23:23Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... including this page! ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. '''How to use this Wiki''' Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 962d531a983c9c2e84b1c429315104ef22735b80 31 30 2014-09-08T01:43:30Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... including this page! ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 568f7b9cb5fe34ef02119b3e01928f566bc87e46 34 31 2014-09-10T01:07:13Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... including this page! ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. ad463bafece5d60571e3f1cf15ccee089ef5372f 35 34 2014-09-10T01:09:41Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* Further Information */ wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... including this page! ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. === 0c8362b232ead0b3ec016318400a8f7b0cfae4d5 37 35 2014-09-10T01:18:31Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* = */ wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... including this page! ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. ad463bafece5d60571e3f1cf15ccee089ef5372f 38 37 2014-09-10T01:21:47Z Callam Porch 3383056 wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... ''including this page!'' ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 092dfb60835eb1c72ecc07d40676221e22f7655d 39 38 2014-09-10T01:25:46Z Callam Porch 3383056 Example New Page Link wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... ''including this page!'' [[Example New Page]] | [[Another Example New Page Link]] ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 899e82515e3fda4c85cf16fc0078d91b571e6cdf 44 39 2014-09-10T01:43:18Z Callam Porch 3383056 Deleting new page link from tutorial. wikitext text/x-wiki ''...and the winner was "'''Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?'''"'' This is your wiki to manage... ''including this page!'' ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 3afa3e01c5392be8a3a4d9921da00f234634c23e 2 6 32 2014-09-09T07:19:08Z Mamta Mamta 3383082 create user page wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 200 7 33 2014-09-09T07:25:01Z Mamta Mamta 3383082 import user wiki wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 1 8 36 2014-09-10T01:17:05Z Callam Porch 3383056 Created page with "What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic." wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. 431ea1c38deeb494eeb9c97fd3a4f8ebc6a4dbf8 50 36 2014-09-14T12:51:27Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. '''1] [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' 98fb998a5beb434b99a68f98c2503b4ee0c8b1d0 52 50 2014-09-15T10:30:58Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* What are Social Platforms? */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. '''1] [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. ce9ab93b379e16abab1b87309ec7d58802321908 2 11 42 2014-09-10T01:30:27Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 create user page wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 3 12 43 2014-09-10T01:31:24Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 Created page with " == General Discussion ==" wikitext text/x-wiki == General Discussion == 866fbd087f7966786679e9bd76e9d021aab68c4f 3 13 45 2014-09-14T10:24:49Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? wikitext text/x-wiki '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' Enterprise 2.0 is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of knowledge management and collaboration and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration in one platform as all-in-on platforms [4]. The successful integration of enterprise applications with enterprise 2.0 helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get its information from ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft SharePoint and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as Facebook, Twitter, wikis, blogs and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as Tibbr from TIBCO Software, Yammer from Microsoft, Chatter from Salesforce, and Connections from IBM. Reference: [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 348ae49beefe5bed438cbcdb72b64e2cf5e6416f 46 45 2014-09-14T10:39:26Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from ERP systems such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as Tibbr from TIBCO Software, Yammer from Microsoft, Chatter from Salesforce, and Connections from IBM. Reference: [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html b255157281bc006be020814ae1d1fcf5be8eac61 47 46 2014-09-14T10:44:13Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from ERP systems such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. '''Reference: ''' [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 5237babdb6c9e466978a508d953d8a9f2c04374b 48 47 2014-09-14T10:44:53Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? wikitext text/x-wiki '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from ERP systems such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. '''Reference:''' [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 1ec198dd49f3bbde9f7c477ca4d218b62feddbb8 49 48 2014-09-14T11:58:42Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. '''Reference:''' [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 68821f483e323778d954b81de38615518f268850 51 49 2014-09-14T12:54:17Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. '''Reference:''' [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 69633a30c0535e3c2eb62c5bc590d8c8e3ed1030 1 8 53 52 2014-09-15T10:32:34Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* General Discussion */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. '''1] [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. == General Discussion == '''Geeneral Discussion of the Topic.''' 3763eb628d0a84b006e33b7dac5823eddcd958a5 57 53 2014-09-15T10:46:40Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. '''1] [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' == General Discussion == '''Geeneral Discussion of the Topic.''' 0f772024a08aaa480d35c246271bbeec6785d704 58 57 2014-09-15T10:55:55Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? == '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' == Who are the major players? == == General Discussion == '''Geeneral Discussion of the Topic.''' a7cbd1400a010e01d965e438e480a5151c7c02b0 59 58 2014-09-15T10:56:47Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Who are the major players? */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? == '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' == Who are the major players in Enterprise 2.0 platforms? == == General Discussion == '''Geeneral Discussion of the Topic.''' a054331aa15531482d8f8c6b99c8ef7819e71797 60 59 2014-09-15T10:57:18Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Who are the major players in Enterprise 2.0 platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? == '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''Geeneral Discussion of the Topic.''' cc4c8a5a121b1983970784e434912cee6c0a4251 62 60 2014-09-15T11:03:17Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* General Discussion */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? == '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' bb21a25e30f453590469441f71aa7838cd305e02 63 62 2014-09-15T11:05:35Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* What are Social Platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? == '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 04072c43c16c8985b6e0fd9d3c53770ec95884d7 64 63 2014-09-15T11:05:55Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* What are Social Platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? == '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Said_Al-Ghanami What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?]''' == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 32cd9a63cb4d766251dac322518eb575c732d074 75 64 2014-09-17T02:04:23Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? == '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' Please have a read of my short introduction about "all-in-one" enterprise social platform". == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 04f2dde3530f5de8ba6fe51563a22f642d7e7f56 83 75 2014-09-17T03:28:53Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready foryour inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. Thanks, Said == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 3502e3e10d891ea74aa77ff9432f2f0b15a1a218 84 83 2014-09-17T03:36:17Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platform */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready foryour inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' c3954fd53c4b7bc0ba41be1a041747cd504856f4 86 84 2014-09-17T07:23:34Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platform */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 9edf8cea66019ce1fef0fcbdd76929f55c8b489b 90 86 2014-09-17T08:20:59Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platform */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 6e1176a1ef9703d5d19ce8f76c0b932ebb4affdf 96 90 2014-09-17T11:59:09Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform]''' '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' fc26340e4742982c40e7c3352434f2cef77ecb92 97 96 2014-09-17T12:02:51Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 073785f704c674db2493954a2655661e1dc9a555 98 97 2014-09-17T12:12:43Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == Who are the major players?== '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform]''' == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?== '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform]''' == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 82fddcf77dd1c13e5895b5c59cf44bf8797680aa 99 98 2014-09-17T12:14:20Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Who are the major players?]''' '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?]''' == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' a8c6ffe188bb50bf9bd1b2c649cc36fe1453c286 100 99 2014-09-17T12:25:45Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == == What are the features of these platforms?== == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?== == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' 0ea427b1b17e108d949c88ce1f5db0d4426796be 101 100 2014-09-17T12:26:44Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Who are the major players?]''' == What are the features of these platforms?== == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?== '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?]''' == General Discussion == '''General Discussion of the Topic.''' b821bd901a67474e1925ca44370dd0583c1d73ac 3 12 54 43 2014-09-15T10:34:51Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* What are Social Platforms? */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki == General Discussion == == What are Social Platforms? == == What are Social Platforms? == A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. 8bf7da7eadd1d5206dfe166cd5983c92f5acce3a 55 54 2014-09-15T10:42:36Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki == What are Social Platforms? == A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. cdee280924efcbf09defef14b95fad67cdc6fed2 56 55 2014-09-15T10:44:10Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What are Social Platforms?''' A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. 92ca10c63108477063b5e029a98dc07d2712950d 61 56 2014-09-15T10:58:06Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* What is all-in-one Social platform? */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki '''What are Social Platforms?''' A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. == What is all-in-one Social platform? == '''All-in-one social platform.''' The social tool which is intended to be a single platform for social content intergating most of the social media features. 11a5d818aa731a6487dea1a960eefcac220ad6be 66 61 2014-09-15T15:23:20Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 /* What is all-in-one Social platform? */ wikitext text/x-wiki '''What are Social Platforms?''' A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. == What is all-in-one Social platform? == '''All-in-one social platform.''' The social tool which is intended to be a single platform for social content integrating most of the social media features. Moreover, the meaning to the term "All-in-one enterprise social platform could be better understood if it is break down into meaningful contents. For instance, "All-in-one'' as a content, "enterprise" as a content and "social platform" as a content. According to technodepia, social platform means a web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social technology solutions and services. To further understand this definition, it is important to ask what are the social technology solutions and services? From my understanding, the social technology solutions include email, blog, wiki, social network, instant messaging, content hosting, video conference, podcast and so on. it is very hard to find a social platform with all these solutions or applications. Integrate all these solutions into on one solution platform makes it 'all in one'. As for the Enterprise, we all know what it means. Reference Technodepia, Social Platform http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform a126386c2a5ebbdcccbfc39b594223f0f46483cd 0 5 65 44 2014-09-15T11:15:13Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' ==Social Platforms== <Content> ==Further Information== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 7b48c9dfeebf690a132ee770397cee70610f195c 85 65 2014-09-17T06:21:23Z Callam Porch 3383056 /* Further Information */ wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' ==Social Platforms== <Content> ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 9b910cfee948809c493665b0e8bd678ec3bb2d05 87 85 2014-09-17T07:26:16Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 "All-in-one" enterprise social platform wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' "All-in-one" enterprise social platform '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. a4238bd5d6aca9ac98f5ceb0ec6294a504a2f144 88 87 2014-09-17T07:27:57Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' =="All-in-one" enterprise social platform== "All-in-one" enterprise social platform '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 0d9e7bd9e7b1dcd2e11707428e9a5bdc7f707ca0 3 13 67 51 2014-09-16T01:06:53Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?''' == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. '''Reference:''' [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 9045c0b3ffd7ead619733a8dc35cdb1bd268b529 68 67 2014-09-16T01:08:14Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?''' == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. '''Reference:''' [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == this page is going to be about the enterprise social platforms 484a7290d20c8faafa42baa6578884e9591281db 69 68 2014-09-16T01:09:09Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? */ wikitext text/x-wiki == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?''' == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == this page is going to be about the enterprise social platforms 14286fe1ca61441629ea9b0692d6fc64c589c94e 70 69 2014-09-16T01:09:32Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* References */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?''' == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == this page is going to be about the enterprise social platforms == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 3b115602590a52e967fe375a88d726f9e5d02efc 71 70 2014-09-16T01:32:22Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform?''' == '''What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? ''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. == The major players in enterprise social platforms == this page is going to be about the enterprise social platforms == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 6fb629ea526cc61aa73e542b463b085d64b6ba6b 72 71 2014-09-16T01:33:00Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* What is an "all-in-one" enterprise social platform? */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. == The major players in enterprise social platforms == this page is going to be about the enterprise social platforms == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html fc3a8b96802de7ef14314aa97f1e07d511011004 0 14 73 2014-09-17T01:54:41Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 All-in-One Enterprise social platform. this page gives introduction to the term all-in-one enterprise social platforms wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of successful enterprise 2.0 applications available in market such as [http://www.tibbr.com/index.php Tibbr] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Chatter] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM]. These enterprise 2.0 applications are used widely by different level of organisations and to shift to the digital era. == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html d7650831b973370fb47f76246f83d198ec5a73a1 77 73 2014-09-17T02:37:20Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 4ba7e8b9a864c3a74dd8048c183a22b9c4317945 78 77 2014-09-17T02:47:27Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Major players in enterprise social platforms wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms == == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 7daf3eacc588b40cf3782d94fb7962e2db0eda3f 79 78 2014-09-17T03:08:31Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, google+, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 6af7e41cefa70984adc3d88a1a9d25f71ef496d0 80 79 2014-09-17T03:18:07Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html 291c0c8ddb3cbbf0f55326f57a42d3b9cb81d311 81 80 2014-09-17T03:18:19Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html a14b2d08f579ac3386d9354f6cf4e79ce87bfe0c 82 81 2014-09-17T03:19:06Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is the use of web 2.0 tools within an organisation for collaboration improvement objective [1]. Also, it is defined by Ramirez-Medina as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 034da984b6dbc6ff8de2be94d0da5b867ce9f220 91 82 2014-09-17T09:25:05Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 5979843ed85903089eb847e03d62b5011e83587f 1 15 74 2014-09-17T02:02:02Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Created page with "Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"?" wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? 54d803edcd2f88c62028c8d391666ddb74baa93e 76 74 2014-09-17T02:08:03Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? == Comments == soon 7f64d63e788fa287d2df85a7dcc6c1d1beb4847c 89 76 2014-09-17T08:01:22Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Major Players */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. 390db2124fae36491d945b686876d01c5d00b462 92 89 2014-09-17T10:32:51Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 /* Who are the major players? */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like Yammer and Zyncro are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is exoplatform. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com link Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] ] 17add4e5fe3854cc85687af91d886fb23065bc92 93 92 2014-09-17T10:34:43Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 /* Who are the major players? */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] fe004f4606b40c90a1de8b14e8e77d687cf7096a 94 93 2014-09-17T10:44:14Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 /* Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == The one of the reasons major players are investing into all-in-one social platform ideas is that they have seen result of public domains like facebook. 2a0ee016abb47d6977769d0daf459943a76444d0 95 94 2014-09-17T11:20:14Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 /* Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. 4124bc956db80c4b41393faafbfe32c8970c2c2d 3 16 102 2014-09-17T13:01:09Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 Created page with "Dear Reader, I am using this platform to express my thought on the reality for the new generation of “all-in-one” enterprise social platforms. Some of the topics I w..." wikitext text/x-wiki Dear Reader, I am using this platform to express my thought on the reality for the new generation of “all-in-one” enterprise social platforms. Some of the topics I will discuss but not limited to these: • What is an “all-in-one’ enterprise social platform? • Who are the major players? • Why are the features of these platforms? • Why are they playing in this space? • What are the benefits of the platforms? • What are the success rates of implementation of such platforms? • What is the business future of these platforms? Thanks 047835a5c36ce1aa72f208462a5a229f9002cc3c 3 16 103 102 2014-09-17T13:01:44Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear Reader, I am using this platform to express my thought on the reality for the new generation of “all-in-one” enterprise social platforms. Some of the topics I will discuss but not limited to these: • What is an “all-in-one’ enterprise social platform? • Who are the major players? • Why are the features of these platforms? • Why are they playing in this space? • What are the benefits of the platforms? • What are the success rates of implementation of such platforms? • What is the business future of these platforms? Thanks 5733f782cdcbe9f4d63288903d9d0c11655aec9d 104 103 2014-09-17T13:02:56Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear Reader, I am using this platform to express my thought on the reality for the new generation of “all-in-one” enterprise social platforms. Some of the topics I will discuss but not limited to these: •What is an “all-in-one’ enterprise social platform? •Who are the major players? •Why are the features of these platforms? •Why are they playing in this space? •What are the benefits of the platforms? •What are the success rates of implementation of such platforms? •What is the business future of these platforms? Thanks b097d922e3154b07c8ab57b164392a6ce8bf958b 105 104 2014-09-17T13:06:08Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear Reader, I am using this platform to express my thought on the reality for the new generation of “all-in-one” enterprise social platforms. ---- Some of the topics I will discuss but not limited to these •What is an “all-in-one’ enterprise social platform? •Who are the major players? •Why are the features of these platforms? •Why are they playing in this space? •What are the benefits of the platforms? •What are the success rates of implementation of such platforms? •What is the business future of these platforms? Thanks 202c8fbc28a8297cb98ad00febcd803bb437d781 149 105 2014-09-19T02:02:58Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 /* Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki Dear Reader, I am using this platform to express my thought on the reality for the new generation of “all-in-one” enterprise social platforms. ---- Some of the topics I will discuss but not limited to these •What is an “all-in-one’ enterprise social platform? •Who are the major players? •Why are the features of these platforms? •Why are they playing in this space? •What are the benefits of the platforms? •What are the success rates of implementation of such platforms? •What is the business future of these platforms? Thanks == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. f94e22e7ee048143219e4479362f64b27dd269f6 0 14 106 91 2014-09-18T01:42:36Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 add headline_features wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == Features == ===Typical features=== ===Additional features=== == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 9735ecd2082f3c75baa79ac7d0a2d6459bc870cc 108 106 2014-09-18T02:33:48Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 add headline_benefits, case studies, future wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == Features == === Typical features === === Additional features === == Benefits == == Case studies == == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html a8b6fc53d558c56b723d8136570caed0f3a9619c 109 108 2014-09-18T03:01:01Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* Features */ change subheadline wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == Features == === Technical Features === === CMS Features === === Social Features === == Benefits == == Case studies == == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html ec370e1d5df922742b0a92012eb0f6a1a63ddfc2 110 109 2014-09-18T03:07:17Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* Case studies */ add subheadline wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == Features == === Technical Features === === CMS Features === === Social Features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 4017f30099ae2868d4a0d88f7dbd9a56e13fa4dd 111 110 2014-09-18T03:08:41Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* Features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 10901b38fe06d68673d849ee91d27fa438c48d96 112 111 2014-09-18T04:11:05Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 add 'List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms' headline and empty table wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[company1]] | company description | website link |- | [[company2]] | company description | |- | [[company3]] | company description | |- | [[company4]] | company description | |- | [[company5]] | company description | |- | [[company6]] | company description | |- | [[company7]] | company description | |- | [[company8]] | company description | |- | [[company9]] | company description | |- | [[company10]] | company description | |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 7c4e2c96e3cb4331928d44808404c27adc5402d8 113 112 2014-09-18T06:04:06Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[company1]] | company description | website link |- | [[company2]] | company description | |- | [[company3]] | company description | |- | [[company4]] | company description | |- | [[company5]] | company description | |- | [[company6]] | company description | |- | [[company7]] | company description | |- | [[company8]] | company description | |- | [[company9]] | company description | |- | [[company10]] | company description | |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html bb727bc83ebd2e01cc34041c8c4e225cdf060178 115 113 2014-09-18T06:26:53Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[company1]] | company description | website link |- | [[company2]] | company description | |- | [[company3]] | company description | |- | [[company4]] | company description | |- | [[company5]] | company description | |- | [[company6]] | company description | |- | [[company7]] | company description | |- | [[company8]] | company description | |- | [[company9]] | company description | |- | [[company10]] | company description | |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 00652472c3451fdde6d3e63f6fa95948c3d1e525 119 115 2014-09-18T09:21:28Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | Niche Social Network | Leading Custom Social Network Development Firm | http://www.vinfotech.com |- | [[company2]] | company description | |- | [[company3]] | company description | |- | [[company4]] | company description | |- | [[company5]] | company description | |- | [[company6]] | company description | |- | [[company7]] | company description | |- | [[company8]] | company description | |- | [[company9]] | company description | |- | [[company10]] | company description | |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 1b0d9b3a53587301847ccd0bad21e078037de6d9 120 119 2014-09-18T09:35:27Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | Niche Social Network | Leading Custom Social Network Development Firm | http://www.vinfotech.com |- | Yammer | Private Social Network Firm | https://www.yammer.com/ |- | [[company3]] | company description | |- | [[company4]] | company description | |- | [[company5]] | company description | |- | [[company6]] | company description | |- | [[company7]] | company description | |- | [[company8]] | company description | |- | [[company9]] | company description | |- | [[company10]] | company description | |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html fed5cda25c537aa24d224430070f01b6b2a9fe18 121 120 2014-09-18T09:40:50Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ add names and web address wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | company description | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com/chatter] |- | [[Connections]] | company description | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn www.ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | company description | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive]] | company description | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | company description | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext]] | company description | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | company description | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | company description | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | company description | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | company description | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 33f2124542c0c7f3293afbca7b90761bf49875d3 123 121 2014-09-18T12:02:44Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ add description detail wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com/chatter] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn www.ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 2e3b0b27e7a46a55a9604e0373a0cfeaa11fe716 124 123 2014-09-18T12:03:40Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com/chatter] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 69e70978b503930fccc5ac6350f4417dbca8ea9f 125 124 2014-09-18T12:39:27Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 1e3b3e2ea1ef30df78d7d1fa0e851cf2d1c7e7ce 126 125 2014-09-18T12:47:47Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* References */ add references_Zyncro wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 5fd5de26de4cddd90db546f87bf6c574e23d1d80 127 126 2014-09-18T12:50:28Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Adding some content about Microsoft and google wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, business suits. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 af4e24d26e48758957a6fa9fbcd38b4614b552fc 128 127 2014-09-18T13:32:59Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [7]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [8]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 96a069efc80dcdf5f92327c1437ede00037fe20b 129 128 2014-09-18T13:34:25Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [7]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [8]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ 3ecb714eed6269da617a935fee627ac9ae2bcd93 130 129 2014-09-18T13:36:37Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [7]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [8]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> 2e6652abe510c330bba6fa31b0b871e8ef53ba24 131 130 2014-09-18T13:37:23Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> 8a33ac8c0e610c6505a377115c0333502c82bf09 132 131 2014-09-18T14:34:36Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Benefits */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that all-in-one enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refersh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> 28d24bc38aef2d143bea7723a71d464695392aff 133 132 2014-09-18T14:40:58Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that all-in-one enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refersh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> b91f015cb07bd1a71bca9cd534b875fed5d2686b 134 133 2014-09-18T14:48:57Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Benefits */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> 45d40741c57baf7d5ecd1aa02a58615d657e854b 138 134 2014-09-18T15:31:42Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> dafb7999777e70aad7708893653412989c21a9ed 139 138 2014-09-18T15:34:03Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> f16e59036b8d6305dfbb973cc229120a1e0d1936 140 139 2014-09-18T15:36:16Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful === === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> c75710f34044691a21aa75644694f5b5edba3169 141 140 2014-09-18T15:50:55Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Successful */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> 4bff5c6438c3e0e630e7b3d75cd92787f51f7c5e 142 141 2014-09-18T15:53:00Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Successful */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. === Unsuccessful === == Future == === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> 9b62c3d7cffc30a8504e0c68d715a0d7deb7e034 143 142 2014-09-18T15:56:00Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” [2]. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations [3]. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform [4]. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems [5]. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market [6]. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works [8]. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint [9]. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America. <ref>http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref> | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == [1] A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. [2] J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009 [3] M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx [4] von L. Pfeiffer(n.d.). The 4 main Elements of Enterprise 2.0 - swabr blog. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://blog.swabr.com/2012/11/20/the-4-main-elements-of-enterprise-2-0/ [5] Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html [6] M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html [7] Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597 [8] Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities/ [9] Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ <references/> b73b800d2b320689d337a3eda7102a1db1fc3abf 144 143 2014-09-18T15:58:56Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 re-do References list format by adding <ref></ref> codes in texts wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> 8563ff5764edddb0a2bc6e5b6b35c6c1ced163d2 147 144 2014-09-19T01:23:26Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> 938fc04558065d66d8a5ebe3b53315e59f75dc37 148 147 2014-09-19T01:28:48Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> 0fa3ba0769e7b3da06a7897b31f785b215c1dde0 150 148 2014-09-20T05:23:42Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> a60dcc584ab7420fa5c43f09d938a495ae16a8cd 151 150 2014-09-20T05:29:39Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> 93190ef4616fcc8b706765588962ecc14f5d41e5 152 151 2014-09-20T05:57:03Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Successful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network such as LinkedIn is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> a6976bbbea794f4e50bcf298709205b85488a8a2 1 15 107 95 2014-09-18T01:50:09Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Thanking the contributors wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. 47a25994cd43e060dc5e97cf08df80792e0fd81e 135 107 2014-09-18T15:03:35Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Useful Readings */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == ['''http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social'''] http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon a2bb0480964219a565bd11bd6ba7df25782eb0c8 136 135 2014-09-18T15:04:13Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Useful Readings */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon 6dcdf4127c7497619aa6005a4f92f33b33933feb 146 136 2014-09-18T23:37:49Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Thanking the contributors wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon 5faf7582d6db2cf7f3372a05d11f1c417979d059 3 17 114 2014-09-18T06:20:14Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 Created page with " == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations..." wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>References</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. == Major players == == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == [1] Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 6b9bc21dd4cdd2c41417637b2484195704d37e5e 116 114 2014-09-18T06:49:41Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>References</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. == Major players == == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. b3a606c94b800b47f713280ab06c56dd99bdcd14 117 116 2014-09-18T06:54:31Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>References</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. == Major players == == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == [1] Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 6b9bc21dd4cdd2c41417637b2484195704d37e5e 118 117 2014-09-18T06:59:03Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>References</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. == Major players == == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == [1] <references /> Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. f168d122bf6fd7c78c477eda5d1b63f224889646 122 118 2014-09-18T10:18:43Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> bf3ee6ff4abb7fbfd8009d4bb4d29a781cd28e86 137 122 2014-09-18T15:11:42Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 2f03f1f87634cd0af9603c91699bee797cdea122 2 18 145 2014-09-18T16:00:50Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 create user page wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 0 14 153 152 2014-09-20T05:58:39Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Successful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> 618f8b16d012d369e31b748e727cdf4311425fae 154 153 2014-09-20T06:33:23Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> a75086e74e3994b3a4ea863ce36624cd6bb3825f 155 154 2014-09-20T06:34:13Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === === Social === == References == <references/> 4081759e57ddf68990cf16eb8cf196466d4c9afe 156 155 2014-09-20T06:37:42Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> d215b008ecbf542ba597db9a3619c7c391ae21fc 157 156 2014-09-20T06:45:10Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> a78036229161cf9245909d42752a912dae42c698 158 157 2014-09-20T06:49:47Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Use of Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels [5]. A different study conducted by Microsoft showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> e842166278f2a70af2b744957de346d1a4a9ab85 159 158 2014-09-20T06:54:29Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities (Smith, 2010)<ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination (Thomas & Barlow, 2011)<ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others (Fee, 2013)<ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels [5]. A different study conducted by Microsoft showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 0cd70c7686a64cf5b4c66214b998ba3f4ac82864 160 159 2014-09-20T06:58:21Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others (Fee, 2013)<ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels [5]. A different study conducted by Microsoft showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 94800fdddd598e5ebf9d9075d2ce82f92ab94af6 161 160 2014-09-20T06:59:24Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels [5]. A different study conducted by Microsoft showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier (Burns, 2014)<ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 5baef070050a2b94ae0579d7bc266f720202666a 162 161 2014-09-20T07:00:41Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Successful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels [5]. A different study conducted by Microsoft showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 4948f6b2819d7c947e82594bb9a90ef277fe0a01 163 162 2014-09-20T07:03:48Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Use of Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels [5]. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 7d66e38f16c17f663a9582bc64a5452ce7686d9d 164 163 2014-09-20T07:07:57Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Use of Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 7a143a0d46dffd81d00979af6e53c5f8a934b079 165 164 2014-09-20T07:32:24Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrived from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 55abc3b950e5b08df7c0a77b00046e5b3e3a16b9 166 165 2014-09-20T08:29:33Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. The other example is on one of the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. Which is used successfully by many different organizations across the world. LinkedIn is one the biggest network of professionals, each being able to be linked to other users. A LinkedIn is very similar to resume, detailing employment and education history, while allowing people to post recommendations for each other. LinkedIn is being used for several reasons in business , one of the most important being recruitment. Hiring new people can be expensive, time consuming, and in the end you may often not end up with the right person for the job.LinkedIn helps organizations to ease the pain with the recruitment process by putting people in touch with highly skilled professionals who are looking for new challenges.(Lennon,2009) === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 175a061e6b29712be8d74915dcbc949452aeaf65 172 166 2014-09-20T09:02:02Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Successful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 16259608f7e3a508145c904d8a50fcf1f9bcc4dd 173 172 2014-09-20T09:24:55Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company [6]. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> 7803b77897a9711f5b4915357b53b9475bad7c78 175 173 2014-09-20T10:22:11Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Use of Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations [7]. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future [8]. === Social === == References == <references/> a76414b9d66ac76a025ffe058b25fcab5fd16a10 176 175 2014-09-20T10:25:23Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Business */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. Westfield Group, a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> 02d94888e34c11eb6e00185d5c8ba7aff0da7164 177 176 2014-09-20T12:06:18Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Use of Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with Yammer to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> f74f03137ab2e12d506f3984bbac1191ac18d423 178 177 2014-09-20T12:07:34Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Use of Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, Yammer hosts over 200,000 companies including DHL, Shell Oil, and CapGemini among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> a0ae1cc04c018285222901cbe6db539a433230e8 179 178 2014-09-20T12:13:21Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Business */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even IBM are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> f49fc4c112a8f74c790f44717e64a145221d0918 180 179 2014-09-20T15:59:11Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> e5b9655533655110240153e6b0e0f1beb81ada73 181 180 2014-09-21T01:32:19Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> 6721458cf2ee282fca18510339a1b907b0799397 184 181 2014-09-21T03:19:02Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. Microsoft has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from Apple, and Skype as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how Microsoft describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" Google is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. IBM is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> d5c212414a55156f1d84cfadb51359733adab6a0 185 184 2014-09-21T03:27:05Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with ERP systems and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> 30fce998d8ad820a0eabf9b57dac7b392e32d9ae 187 185 2014-09-21T04:34:05Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of social networking sites. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> 78bf00c770295552ac9e56009d35f4c369d56d48 188 187 2014-09-21T04:45:59Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> 0a69c85c95fc9fca7d094cd43a593e19181e3a41 189 188 2014-09-21T05:43:30Z Jun Meng 3383084 CRM features wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === == References == <references/> f78fd72a7d5f3aea897c57df569032207ca35ef8 190 189 2014-09-21T06:50:57Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Challenges Associated To Enterprise Social Platform == == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Data Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Working on this part, will update later. == References == <references/> 8b1703c09ebba660591387f480e9ff03eb350714 191 190 2014-09-21T06:52:23Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Working on this part, will update later. == References == <references/> 6130d0be4d70a8e9b27ca1db208020e7748d0a94 192 191 2014-09-21T07:20:38Z Jun Meng 3383084 LMS features wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Working on this part, will update later. == References == <references/> f22a843206e24b681088c49fbfc3876316ff31c2 193 192 2014-09-21T08:12:09Z Abdulaziz Abdullah A Almohsen 3383075 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Working on this part, will update later. == References == <references/> e343aee1b916be78c9f36060a1cc3ed57707fc51 194 193 2014-09-21T08:31:12Z Abdulaziz Abdullah A Almohsen 3383075 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Working on this part, will update later. == References == <references/> 510db95d5c91e643a1f0234b21b8683bf58858ff 195 194 2014-09-21T11:31:04Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 /* Privacy Issues */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 5b2fe257aa4098f99b4288977e183a8260fdfbc1 199 195 2014-09-22T03:57:54Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Use of Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> c072f4ffe588732d20a4bd2aa3bd35115fe6d776 200 199 2014-09-22T04:00:15Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Use of Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 168bd63047ff87fc0b45ca5145968d477ca23445 201 200 2014-09-22T04:10:45Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> aa1347ad20ed08498eacf49b4fbbfb448519949e 3 17 167 137 2014-09-20T08:34:37Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Overview */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 34b9a06ac6549224e08321bbcc553d07d2b6bee1 168 167 2014-09-20T08:39:36Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Overview */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> a8762541de9a1762550ed71693aa424af5962768 169 168 2014-09-20T08:45:01Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Major players */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 2bf733cd016b93c783489a8c9e8627ba2bc45e64 170 169 2014-09-20T08:45:49Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 529129f6df89dd858279ccb281dd0a22151143f3 171 170 2014-09-20T08:57:55Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Successful case studies */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 8a472ba5efab80738a135f436b44937ae30d9f0d 182 171 2014-09-21T03:07:03Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Failed examples */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off. == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 57f5465c3bd46cfe19a89c98b0f567f0e1610af4 183 182 2014-09-21T03:18:02Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Failed examples */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 2734affc7cda0965fb4f8a02d0bf5e9a1bea38c6 198 183 2014-09-22T03:57:35Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Failed examples */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 1ed2701b8f734742c8a006e7bcc9d0f8aaeb188b 202 198 2014-09-22T04:12:17Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Future of social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == Most of the enterprise platforms combine analytical tools and social media tools. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == References == <references /> b4eb8541bc7d52347a1ff7c55f84a3fd898d63b1 3 16 174 149 2014-09-20T09:55:18Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear Reader, I am using this platform to express my thought on the reality for the new generation of “all-in-one” enterprise social platforms. ---- Some of the topics I will discuss but not limited to these •What is an “all-in-one’ enterprise social platform? •Who are the major players? •Why are the features of these platforms? •Why are they playing in this space? •What are the benefits of the platforms? •What are the success rates of implementation of such platforms? •What is the business future of these platforms? Thanks == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Reference == Kaplan, A. M., &Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68. 0905151a7c421c29868b5686b89a7bdcb7a16f86 0 5 186 88 2014-09-21T03:38:33Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' =="All-in-one" enterprise social platform== This wiki contains useful information about "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms", including its definition, features, benefits, challenges, major players/stakeholders, some successful and failed cases and its future. '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms]''' ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. d75d18ff3c17cacf9a8d52fba95f6671a6a76a55 6 19 196 2014-09-22T02:59:21Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 0 20 197 2014-09-22T03:06:43Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Created page with "[[File:Tibbr.png|400px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], social networking platform that enables employee..." wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|400px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. [http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration] The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace). Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. Companies that use Tibbr include Macy's, iHealth and InterPortPolice. [http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/] 7adc1532293529802df5c9c9c7ecc91fe4bc38af 0 14 203 201 2014-09-22T04:25:00Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Technical features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 4181a5f85ba3c8c1149700510673af47e24fa78c 205 203 2014-09-22T04:29:07Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US shoed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> f1418685e0fe978244d6b8936e1852a88d901537 207 205 2014-09-22T07:52:07Z Julie Peters 3383086 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 1811fc4f7e5255118800c555023efd47c68b0780 208 207 2014-09-22T07:54:05Z Julie Peters 3383086 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 2b476a36e47224301ebead212885c4e8fb95d9a1 209 208 2014-09-22T07:56:34Z Julie Peters 3383086 /* CMS features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === Content Management Systems (CMS) === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> a12c124474f1345bc93ed1b4a1b33100674c2d6f 210 209 2014-09-22T10:26:08Z Julie Peters 3383086 /* CMS features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> e2fe27ad5a25c78a1d76d588312180301a6d06f3 211 210 2014-09-22T10:51:22Z Julie Peters 3383086 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> b87425c7631eb27c989d3b6c34613bd284504b45 212 211 2014-09-22T11:04:07Z Julie Peters 3383086 /* LMS features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 718620db37c336dabe37d8852b86448f86326ba9 213 212 2014-09-22T11:48:47Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> f26ce3fbef7c5c678ba8d9ffecce664d6a80140c 214 213 2014-09-22T12:10:21Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> ed3757f42709b7bc3e5664170b0d1953f66ba14b 215 214 2014-09-22T12:11:49Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 716cc6a5de4ad24ad9cf85a38d770c27d32ff137 216 215 2014-09-22T12:12:35Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 26a51e36b3ef45ecf1f891c9bbcd4aa6b335f0eb 217 216 2014-09-22T12:15:51Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 6c1287f8403e33a517cdba73867fe16f950aa5a7 218 217 2014-09-22T12:42:01Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Successful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Benefits == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> c24d1bc84fc4c16f0ef58a6696c89c100d394528 220 218 2014-09-22T12:53:37Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 604bfb73bea0f65fa2dbca9cada3f02511a00fcf 221 220 2014-09-22T12:56:32Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 7c4f1d2228222dd02d9264a20ea685a38ee1bd38 222 221 2014-09-22T14:20:02Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as HubSpot provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 05ee6aee44be186102e6b970af624f27516525e4 223 222 2014-09-22T14:21:57Z Adel Mohammed I Alzughibi 3383078 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> be75e062888b1137ad205abc9e064c97a7995671 224 223 2014-09-22T14:23:38Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor service performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> cbf05dee5d0b1713d19525aa00a55e96648f13cd 225 224 2014-09-22T14:26:47Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 4c135ecb0576949709ecc89a2cb9a93772c91674 228 225 2014-09-22T15:34:08Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Business */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> 59e363409ada30cb88c5eafd0b0ffc52c5f366be 229 228 2014-09-23T05:48:42Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> eb67658679b8d5ff013175ffed0b9e62f6b6a9d2 230 229 2014-09-23T05:49:05Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, Anthony. (2013) <references/>. TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : <ref>http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> 930cb43c012a4d41f066308504f6c458dd4d685a 231 230 2014-09-23T08:06:35Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms - updated*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. Progressive and prospective organizations are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, Anthony. (2013) <references/>. TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : <ref>http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> ba4bf3d266f3f8eda7e3ed0491bd9235d403d6be 232 231 2014-09-23T08:09:54Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, Anthony. (2013) <references/>. TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : <ref>http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> 7a2ed4eb3b2833c2774ee87dd504b7d20332f163 233 232 2014-09-23T08:13:01Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* "Introduction All-in-one" enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, Anthony. (2013) <references/>. TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : <ref>http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> cfdc1efaaf3c8382852e758bd55abc7a802c4ec0 235 233 2014-09-23T08:16:20Z Julie Peters 3383086 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, Anthony. (2013) <references/>. TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : <ref>http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> 93d67e46815ca200774b86b6cca5cf89ff659cec 236 235 2014-09-23T08:33:06Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Connections (software)]] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [[eXo]] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Jive (software)]] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [[Socialtext (software)]] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [[Yammer]] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [[Zimbra]] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 6f558d24662c9388a951d781cfaf0bc0d3ccf630 239 236 2014-09-23T08:52:09Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [Tibbr] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Atlassian Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [[Salesforce Chatter]] | An enterprise social network was launched in 2010 to provide organizations real-time chat and collaboration. It is also accessible from software or mobile applications to manage and monitor work performance. | [https://www.salesforce.com salesforce.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 84115cabbdf619e28f8b3bce07df26dbfb5ee212 240 239 2014-09-23T08:54:23Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Atlassian Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 5e42ac47c38f96c15ff9697d80839024b9250f51 241 240 2014-09-23T08:57:23Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe.Although,many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 37ccc8f19aedd2690ab7faacee3ab951093a5e00 243 241 2014-09-23T09:28:13Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $ 1.2 billions as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ c2caab9fbf93741f42a973401caeae7425ae9779 244 243 2014-09-23T09:29:30Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the orgnizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 02e318fa7bdbdd3057677555438ae73bbe4503c8 245 244 2014-09-23T09:55:39Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Successful cases - added case of Jive's integration in National Instruments (USA)*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, tutorials, and engineering challenges. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ e836c070ff6f70da6bfd5497d9bad15567e2f67b 246 245 2014-09-23T10:04:04Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Successful cases - added reference for Jive's example case*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ f57aa1072045ae2b09ed230db4c2a5c6f50329a7 247 246 2014-09-23T10:09:30Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Successful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 902444b475f3b5c7452623c1aa587f27afeaa309 248 247 2014-09-23T10:14:38Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Atlassian Confluence]] | An organizational platform was launched in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence atlassian.com/software/confluence] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ bce2567e91bed07cbd589aa16eb3d425eeda847e 249 248 2014-09-23T10:15:19Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (August 17, 2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week' article. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ ef41fa6c450d3217308152327e772d2ad050c86c 250 249 2014-09-23T10:23:38Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Introduction - edited the reference*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 12ad39917fa1ceb6b909d252179ffaecf38c82c6 251 250 2014-09-23T10:30:00Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Successful cases - included one more successful case example of Jive software with MICROS OPERA */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 98c43b6baae79c8ad6225aed450dd382bf589c99 252 251 2014-09-23T10:55:18Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. 2012. Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 37cfd626b42534649e18258e5c2029b6c3ff1cac 3 17 204 202 2014-09-22T04:25:27Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == Most of the enterprise platforms combine analytical tools and social media tools. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 4e6fde23c59b37c59508252c38117c6d4d1a473e 206 204 2014-09-22T04:31:31Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Features of social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == Most of the enterprise platforms combine analytical tools and social media tools. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. For more features, check [[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one Social Platforms]] page. == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == == References == <references /> 197538431c869df276b1e1fd4bac3b220c9b142b 226 206 2014-09-22T15:31:23Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Future of social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == Most of the enterprise platforms combine analytical tools and social media tools. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. For more features, check [[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one Social Platforms]] page. == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future. == References == <references /> 4be625df6196f22444d1f34f50913cd8ca4ea99b 227 226 2014-09-22T15:32:41Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Future of social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == Most of the enterprise platforms combine analytical tools and social media tools. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. For more features, check [[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one Social Platforms]] page. == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. == References == <references /> 9677231eed9424758d886cb3092b660333e1da79 1 15 219 146 2014-09-22T12:47:16Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Topics to be covered */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, we need to cover the following sections and subtopics: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology - Social Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" 8d939338abd058f004661a77a71c568f52f2b831 0 20 234 197 2014-09-23T08:13:35Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|400px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], Tibbr is a social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. [http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration] The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the Tibbr social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace).[http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/] Tibbr can be deployed from a company's corporate data center, or through a cloud environment hosted by TIBCO. [http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration] ==Features[http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]== *Contextual. With its unique approach, tibbr allows information to be organized by subject or topic. Leveraging its highly customizable structure and classification system, you can tailor an information model and hierarchy that works best for the business and workforce. *Relevant. As not all topics matter equally to each person, tibbr allows users to create, contribute, and subscribe to the event streams that matter most to their roles and interests. Users also have complete control of the frequency in which they receive notifications – right down to the individual subject. *Integrated. Information from any existing application can be mapped to specific subjects. Instead of constantly checking different systems or calling someone for updates, tibbr can instantly notify you and your team of the change you are looking for. *Accessible. Whether at home, on the move, or at work, users can publish and receive tibbr updates anytime, anywhere. Sharing information has never been so easy. *Secure. Whether for use on-premise or hosted in a cloud environment by TIBCO, tibbr is designed to meet all your data security needs. Integration is quick and simple – often only requiring a few hours – and ensures all data storage and user access points meet enterprise-level security, compliance, and audit requirements. Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. ==Licenses== Tibbr licenses start at $12 per user per month, for either the on-premise or cloud-based version of the product, with per seat pricing declining with volume. The company offers a free 60 day trial, but does not offer an ongoing freemium option, because, as Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing, has said in the past, “Yammer does that for us.” As overconfident as this may sound, the fact that as of April 2013, 75 percent of all Tibbr users had switched from Yammer seems to back up the claim. [http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/] ===Tibbr's impact=== Tibbr has grown from 1.5 million paid users to 6.5 million paid users between 2012 and 2013, and now has users in 7,000 global cities. By comparison, Yammer had just 800,000 paid users when it sold to Microsoft in 2012.[http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/] Companies that are using Tibbr, include [http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/]: * Macy's * iHealth * InterPortPolice. ==Devices== All Tibbr's features are available across desktop, Web, and mobile, with support for the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms from 2,100 distinct mobile device models. [http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/] ==References== <references /> f0a0e851fe95643461d4d76f6cf924e860b12926 237 234 2014-09-23T08:35:55Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|400px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], Tibbr is a social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. [http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration] The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the Tibbr social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace). <ref>Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Tibbr can be deployed from a company's corporate data center, or through a cloud environment hosted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO]. [http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration] ==Features[http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]== *Contextual. With its unique approach, tibbr allows information to be organized by subject or topic. Leveraging its highly customizable structure and classification system, you can tailor an information model and hierarchy that works best for the business and workforce. *Relevant. As not all topics matter equally to each person, tibbr allows users to create, contribute, and subscribe to the event streams that matter most to their roles and interests. Users also have complete control of the frequency in which they receive notifications – right down to the individual subject. *Integrated. Information from any existing application can be mapped to specific subjects. Instead of constantly checking different systems or calling someone for updates, tibbr can instantly notify you and your team of the change you are looking for. *Accessible. Whether at home, on the move, or at work, users can publish and receive tibbr updates anytime, anywhere. Sharing information has never been so easy. *Secure. Whether for use on-premise or hosted in a cloud environment by TIBCO, tibbr is designed to meet all your data security needs. Integration is quick and simple – often only requiring a few hours – and ensures all data storage and user access points meet enterprise-level security, compliance, and audit requirements. Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. ==Licenses== Tibbr licenses start at $12 per user per month, for either the on-premise or cloud-based version of the product, with per seat pricing declining with volume. The company offers a free 60 day trial, but does not offer an ongoing freemium option, because, as Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing, has said in the past, “Yammer does that for us.” As overconfident as this may sound, the fact that as of April 2013, 75 percent of all Tibbr users had switched from Yammer seems to back up the claim. [http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/] ===Tibbr's impact=== Tibbr has grown from 1.5 million paid users to 6.5 million paid users between 2012 and 2013, and now has users in 7,000 global cities. By comparison, Yammer had just 800,000 paid users when it sold to Microsoft in 2012.[http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/] Companies that are using Tibbr, include [http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/]: * Macy's * iHealth * InterPortPolice. ==Devices== All Tibbr's features are available across desktop, Web, and mobile, with support for the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms from 2,100 distinct mobile device models. [http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/] ==References== <references /> 217532558a8e37e0359389f3a4534b345f5d05f2 1 21 238 2014-09-23T08:36:59Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Created page with "I have created the page for Tibbr, but it has mistakes on the References that I intend to mend in a while." wikitext text/x-wiki I have created the page for Tibbr, but it has mistakes on the References that I intend to mend in a while. 8a7a229b91bf8d463f6efa42b12fc53e55d4f7cc 242 238 2014-09-23T09:04:03Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki I have created the page for Tibbr since it does not exist in Wikipedia, but it has mistakes on the References that I intend to mend in a while. d21676df0231b783b9fbd4d83de055229dfcfd54 0 14 253 252 2014-09-23T10:59:25Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. 2012. Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 4fd8205f052cf51a6cfbbaf36cfc4867497954a7 254 253 2014-09-23T11:02:00Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. 2012. Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 28bffc998cdc67c13c660496ef6e36d533fffd02 256 254 2014-09-23T11:30:06Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* CRM features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. 2012. Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 8bec2ef33466734e88e002a012d95e13d27af944 257 256 2014-09-23T12:45:39Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ a21365274be312e2a8cdcb94c16a631265786b66 258 257 2014-09-23T20:25:11Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms (Title) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===Levels of User Engagement=== Although an all-in-one enterprise social platform is very likely to enhance the interaction and communication between staff, the sharing of knowledge and the transparency of information, it still needs to be pointed out that the engagement of users can have a significant impact on the system. An all-in-one social platform requires users not only to retrieve information, but also to share and contribute new knowledge. According to a recent research, only active contributors appeared to experience potential benefits of social platforms consistently, while the other passive readers cannot get real benefits from a group, even for those advantages often associated with acquiring information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> From the perspective of social network analytics, those active contributors have a high degree of connectivity, which play key roles in social network. Therefore, the success of implementing an all-in-one social platform is dependent of how to transform passive readers into active contributors. Muller suggests that members of an enterprise social platform “should be in a position not only to choose, but also to co-create and co-refine roles with other members”. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This indicates that an ideal all-in-one social platform should allow users to fit their talents to appropriate functional roles, in order to engage more contributors. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ e5bd7763c2bfeb930dd0488410ce21e773522880 259 258 2014-09-23T20:38:08Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Levels of User Engagement (Edited Whole Subsection) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===Levels of User Engagement=== All-in-one platforms have a high likelihood of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ aae111339f2521f1a2ce6b4aab3ba70b7a9f8ebc 260 259 2014-09-23T20:40:22Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Levels of User Engagement (Edited Whole Subsection) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Information Security=== Enterprise social platform has been blamed for delivering information to both intended and unintended recipients, leading to “leakage” of organizational information. Besides, the technology exposes the communicators too and the content on their networks as well. Much as the communication is public, there are certain instances where employees require their information classified and directed to the targeted recipients only. However, managers look at this phenomenon of leaking information in good taste especially concerning sharing and learning information. Internet has provided a common platform where ideas converge, allowing people to reflect on their common preferences while avoiding conflicting ideas. This is a disadvantageous in information sharing in the organization <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. These balkanizing internet effects have been witnessed in numerous areas, like political, scientific community and entertainment<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Through blogging, for instance, like-minded individual identify him or herself and share professional experiences and knowledge. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ e4d5041173927edcbd773933e4d344342a485586 261 260 2014-09-23T21:10:34Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Security of Information (Modified) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Privacy Issues=== Privacy issue is one of the most concerned issues regarding social networking websites. Comparatively, an all-in-one enterprise social platform is not as public as other social platforms, but the risk of privacy leakage still cannot be neglected. In most cases, an intranet enterprise social platform would be considered safe for users to share information. According to an IBM’s research, <ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref> users did not show any concern on the privacy control of their contents shared within the enterprise intranet. However, in another research, it is claimed that “a valuable enterprise social network can be built based on public data only”, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which indicates that an internet-based enterprise platform can be much more useful, since a number of web 2.0 features such as search engines heavily relies on massive data on the Internet. As a result, some enterprises adopt both intranet and internet social platforms which could solve the issue of privacy vs. usability, but it adds up to the cost and complexity of system operation. Another possible solution is implementing different strategies of privacy control regarding different users, while some users might feel offended due to the opaque content. Therefore, how to control the privacy level will still be a huge challenge for the next generation of all-in-one enterprise social platform. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 9e1dba94120a8cdcfd84800849dfb76174ef13b3 262 261 2014-09-23T21:38:12Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Issues of Privacy (Rewritten) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 3206a81e37078678cf46f16f781454eb0423895b 263 262 2014-09-23T21:58:09Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Social */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 0ef3274cd96a5cca695df3064b15494c9afe91fc 264 263 2014-09-23T22:09:47Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Technology */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 34af4a41511472f2f6cc5b122d7d4945385d4904 265 264 2014-09-23T22:14:41Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Social (Added Content) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 137bf3260793dcd28c19110b1b5d3eb2867a80e6 266 265 2014-09-23T22:17:17Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Technology (Added Content) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need o keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ f6cfb759a78e0ef7fff62a65d734f584bc244ec2 267 266 2014-09-23T22:43:19Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Technology (Added More Content) wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina has defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is used successfully by different type of organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media network such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be even called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices in general. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook, which includes news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers the important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Also, vendors encourage social capabilities into different kinds of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems enable their users to search and find various contents, to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds in providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. The tools adapted by these platforms include blogging where partisan individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ b65ef38c34a8002c40d092e96feb5710f63d1b49 269 267 2014-09-23T23:11:41Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. There are a number of major players in enterprise social platforms such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook]. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 92e158fd9f6bb1b713e167ada27da482633550a6 270 269 2014-09-23T23:13:02Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used as for individuals works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product, Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises and through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. In addition, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information on the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ ee78c3b44634eb6331cae263f13128c28ee3d80b 271 270 2014-09-23T23:25:17Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == There is a number of enterprise social platforms available and the below table shows the most used platforms by most organisations: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ a2e284f881c16e8f34460671809ae328e1f16f15 272 271 2014-09-23T23:31:06Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 8c25c4e535e938e206a8f856aaf8d18e06d87b1b 274 272 2014-09-24T03:21:36Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, Anthony. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, Anthoiny. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 4dbda80e114e3b652e6959b7225f591744cf63fe 275 274 2014-09-24T03:25:38Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 6fb2f45578e434b9c780925b2a5cd8cb1dc7dfa4 278 275 2014-09-24T05:01:43Z Dharini 3383208 /* Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 047d2b6622e4b551e3b7ba682c48428f5aa52208 279 278 2014-09-24T05:08:36Z Dharini 3383208 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ <references/> Anthony J. Bradley, B. (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ dbee95f6146023bcb60748035b1d11619b28956c 280 279 2014-09-24T05:18:18Z Waleed Ali Alharbi 3383072 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ <references/> Anthony J. Bradley, B. (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ c4a4e7035fcfdf5b693dbe6a090a5d30aa8c5757 281 280 2014-09-24T05:52:10Z Dharini 3383208 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ <references/> Anthony J. Bradley, B. (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 4886b7e2d8945228287093d5fe84332fdf69463b 282 281 2014-09-24T05:55:01Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ <references/> Anthony J. Bradley, B. (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 3d9091575e39818afbdc0744374fd4f7e73e2983 283 282 2014-09-24T06:38:09Z Dharini 3383208 /* Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Perception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ <references/> Anthony J. Bradley, B. (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ becb75d013ac5feed45b9b8cb3c4c92e3c4ca951 284 283 2014-09-24T06:41:56Z Dharini 3383208 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Perception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 86fc1e77a1da8b5f968da9f6698d3f7bc56d71e1 285 284 2014-09-24T08:10:08Z Julie Peters 3383086 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr] to allow their cabin staff to collaborate together. With more than 10 000 staff who were constantly in transit, collaboration was difficult. tibbr facilitates face to face conversations, travel alerts and staff are more engaged. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Perception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 4d3394b1575bd8f5d765663020fffd7e6e195c69 286 285 2014-09-24T08:45:18Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr] to allow their cabin staff to collaborate together. With more than 10 000 staff who were constantly in transit, collaboration was difficult. tibbr facilitates face to face conversations, travel alerts and staff are more engaged. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Perception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 4a75a49b563a50d2573b88c36769b0b3273d26b0 287 286 2014-09-24T08:53:30Z Julie Peters 3383086 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Perception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 a67f4f75a26d17e7b2f10299b1d75cd4e872616a 289 287 2014-09-24T13:38:05Z Dharini 3383208 /* Transparency and Perception */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Perception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 f8e5a5f49e95ce15ff9f9865e765d82de83be4c5 290 289 2014-09-24T13:40:04Z Dharini 3383208 /* Transparency and Perception */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 7a8fbc19c5268241656d9a74d0e12c4e6fe0d642 291 290 2014-09-24T13:54:13Z Dharini 3383208 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 40afc79c140967446c2ac333fbdce7adb6e36833 292 291 2014-09-24T14:00:29Z Dharini 3383208 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 9c55e23a1a134d2b83e983b2cf3c659d603319ee 293 292 2014-09-24T14:22:03Z Dharini 3383208 /* Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 70e1a5e94a05064b85c58ae574f89e742b52ef05 294 293 2014-09-24T14:47:39Z Dharini 3383208 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 69034191e37eb8863d26e3b8166a21991ae3595a 295 294 2014-09-24T14:48:00Z Dharini 3383208 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== Currently working on this, will update later. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 61. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 62. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 63. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 95cd043567f5e61d5f5439afb45f5caee0c73eff 296 295 2014-09-25T00:40:27Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 /* Criticism */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 61. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 62. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 63. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ ea764e96c1e16bf28c4b4ba5b4081b5a3122d27b 298 296 2014-09-25T03:39:47Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 61. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 62. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 63. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 574a910293e43f945f61dcac5c39fcdfd45ed049 300 298 2014-09-25T03:41:17Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research [http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215], estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 61. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 62. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 63. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ fe9134084657699cad97385e2da939ce4682aaab 301 300 2014-09-25T03:43:03Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research [http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215], estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 56. Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 57. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 61. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 62. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 63. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ ab389f8f61a4a132449b40971c2d19605b428b9f 6 22 255 2014-09-23T11:12:13Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 1 15 268 219 2014-09-23T23:05:29Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Topics to be covered */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, we need to cover the following sections and subtopics: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great Job Abdulrahman, Meng, Kaushik and Karen. 60a6e195b9e6351f0a2f284a129963cd48ba857e 3 17 273 227 2014-09-24T03:21:16Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Features of social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == Most of the enterprise platforms combine analytical tools and social media tools. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available from: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. For more features, check [[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one Social Platforms]] page. == Benefits & their importance == == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. == References == <references /> 9350ecddd765094ddde34b95b0527a5e93b89d09 276 273 2014-09-24T03:37:31Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Benefits & their importance */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Overview == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. The term “all in one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but they also encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Major players == There are a number of players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. check [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page for more information. == Features of social platforms == Most of the enterprise platforms combine analytical tools and social media tools. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available from: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. For more features, check [[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one Social Platforms]] page. == Benefits & their importance == There are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Successful case studies == Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented. For example, [http://www.childrenshospital.org/ Boston Children’s Hospital] uses [http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics OPENPediatrics], an implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections], to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier <ref>Burns, J. (2014). Research + Innovation. Boston Children's Hospital. Available from: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-initiatives/openpediatrics</ref>. Another example is the installation of Tibbr by Australian law accounting and real estate firms [http://www.hlb.com.au/Home HLB Mann Judd] and [http://www.comptongreenpropertymanagement.com.au/ Compton Green]. Both companies use the enterprise platform to ease information flow, improve employee collaboration and increase lead generation by allowing coworkers to utilize each other’s’ experiences <ref>Tibco. (2014). TIBCO Enables Australian Companies to Move Collaboration to the Cloud. Available at http://www.tibbr.com/tell-me-more/press/australian.php</ref>. For more cases, please check the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All-in-one enterprise social platforms] page. == Failed examples == Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. == Future of social platforms == Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. == References == <references /> e246f7bb34a31101110e8a75af6fa40755054456 6 23 277 2014-09-24T03:49:36Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 1 8 288 101 2014-09-24T11:52:08Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* General Discussion */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke All-in-one social platform]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Who are the major players?]''' == What are the features of these platforms?== == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?== '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?]''' == General Discussion == '''[[Page dividing suggestions]]''' cb7cbe34b8646d9046a082a36771a76a82bc676a 6 24 297 2014-09-25T03:33:08Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 0 25 299 2014-09-25T03:40:41Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Created page with "[[File:R6BMSS.png|600px|thumb|right|Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] [http://www.exacttarget.com/products/social-media-marketing Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] comes..." wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:R6BMSS.png|600px|thumb|right|Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] [http://www.exacttarget.com/products/social-media-marketing Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] comes from the acquisition spree that brought [http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/social-media-listening/ Radian6], [http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/social-media-publishing/ Buddy Media], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExactTarget ExactTarget] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce]. It is a platform for social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics, built for both enterprise scale and consumer ease of use, that allows collaboration between marketers. ==How does it work== Social Studio draws tech strengths from Radian6 including social customer monitoring and engagement as well as management across multiple social channels. Buddy Media was acquired for its social campaign management capabilities, and its IP shows up in Social Studio workflows, approvals, and governance around managing and publishing content and responding to customers engaging with that content. <ref>Henschen, D. Salesforce.com Social Studio Blends Buddy Media, Radian6 [Internet]. InformationWeek Connecting the Business Technology Community; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/software-as-a-service/salesforcecom-social-studio-blends-buddy-media-radian6/d/d-id/1251027 </ref> The following video demonstrates how the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5r4NfidJE Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] works in an organisation environment. ==Features== The product includes collaborative workspaces and calendars, content creation and scheduling, integrated engagement monitoring, and enhanced analytics that can monitor content performance by label, campaigns, or any particular target. It also includes a mobile version, so that marketers never have to stop marketing. <ref> Kuchinskas, S.Radian6 and Buddy Media United as Social Studio [Internet]. ClickZ Marketing News & Expert Advice; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2343096/radian6-and-buddy-media-united-as-social-studio </ref> ==Partnerships and Cost== Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio is an open platform that lets developers, independent software vendors, customers, or partners build their own applications on top of it. The platform is launching with several vendor partnerships that the company says will make it easier for marketers to discover content. They are Getty Images, Kontera, Nexgate, Pressly, Rallyverse, Shutterstock, ShopIgniter, and TrendSpottr. Marketers still need to set up licenses with individual partners before accessing them via the platform. The platform is generally available and free to current customers of Buddy Media, ExactTarget, or Radian6. Pricing starts at $1,500 per month. ==References== <references /> 7a2ffdaf2eda3319b782e4f2fa7e20208bc1e021 302 299 2014-09-25T03:43:35Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:R6BMSS.png|600px|thumb|right|Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] [http://www.exacttarget.com/products/social-media-marketing Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] comes from the acquisition spree that brought [http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/social-media-listening/ Radian6], [http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/social-media-publishing/ Buddy Media], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExactTarget ExactTarget] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce]. It is a platform for social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics, built for both enterprise scale and consumer ease of use, that allows collaboration between marketers. <ref> LeBrun, M. Introducing Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio [Internet]. ExactTarget Marketing Cloud Blog; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/radian6-buddymedia-socialstudio-launch/</ref> ==How does it work== Social Studio draws tech strengths from Radian6 including social customer monitoring and engagement as well as management across multiple social channels. Buddy Media was acquired for its social campaign management capabilities, and its IP shows up in Social Studio workflows, approvals, and governance around managing and publishing content and responding to customers engaging with that content. <ref>Henschen, D. Salesforce.com Social Studio Blends Buddy Media, Radian6 [Internet]. InformationWeek Connecting the Business Technology Community; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/software-as-a-service/salesforcecom-social-studio-blends-buddy-media-radian6/d/d-id/1251027 </ref> The following video demonstrates how the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5r4NfidJE Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] works in an organisation environment. ==Features== The product includes collaborative workspaces and calendars, content creation and scheduling, integrated engagement monitoring, and enhanced analytics that can monitor content performance by label, campaigns, or any particular target. It also includes a mobile version, so that marketers never have to stop marketing. <ref> Kuchinskas, S.Radian6 and Buddy Media United as Social Studio [Internet]. ClickZ Marketing News & Expert Advice; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2343096/radian6-and-buddy-media-united-as-social-studio </ref> ==Partnerships and Cost== Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio is an open platform that lets developers, independent software vendors, customers, or partners build their own applications on top of it. The platform is launching with several vendor partnerships that the company says will make it easier for marketers to discover content. They are Getty Images, Kontera, Nexgate, Pressly, Rallyverse, Shutterstock, ShopIgniter, and TrendSpottr. Marketers still need to set up licenses with individual partners before accessing them via the platform. The platform is generally available and free to current customers of Buddy Media, ExactTarget, or Radian6. Pricing starts at $1,500 per month. ==References== <references /> a35732f12e7f735094dd0e54c6b17fc572071095 0 14 303 301 2014-09-25T03:44:32Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research [http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215], estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 65. Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 66. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 61. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 62. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 63. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 7fd999cbb081e1f7bde22394423045b6c9e8f058 304 303 2014-09-25T03:47:49Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 65. Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 66. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 58. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 59. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 60. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 61. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 62. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 63. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 2e1e70d64f82f50d542c74f00601faa5874e6257 305 304 2014-09-25T03:49:10Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 66. Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 67. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 222beceac01f1aa7e0bb894fd1d62483a3a1cc86 307 305 2014-09-25T03:52:33Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatter Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 66. Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 67. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 93fd68b921700079eada5c59b7e32d88b095f836 308 307 2014-09-25T03:55:44Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [Chatter] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 66. Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 67. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ bf231645ffd181d394de75f7ba29116a8b286fdd 309 308 2014-09-25T03:56:28Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 66. Gartner, (2013) Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 67. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 592f925f1ffe4c9cc3374a325a64929623fe2772 310 309 2014-09-25T03:56:53Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 67. Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 44f073dcc0bdf022660d902f72c6bfbb9a71feda 311 310 2014-09-25T03:58:03Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ e63a891e1a19151a46edd2f0734d663f158d44ea 312 311 2014-09-25T04:21:41Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 398d65596b1100986ae8400f94c6904f9460d1d5 313 312 2014-09-25T04:22:37Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 4b5f796dbafc06e85f50a1f6565ccee5c5fd41ce 314 313 2014-09-25T04:23:37Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ badcb3b73b71589ab0fb745ba194a5b6822a86dd 315 314 2014-09-25T04:24:20Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 4b5f796dbafc06e85f50a1f6565ccee5c5fd41ce 316 315 2014-09-25T06:06:56Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 /* Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ===Filtering Information=== I'm currently working on this part. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 23ecbb9256169898ccb7e9321270d72d8c7ded63 318 316 2014-09-25T09:06:39Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ===Filtering Information=== I'm currently working on this part. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ b9041686a7140abe06b77850363125c25f9a4719 319 318 2014-09-25T09:08:27Z Qiwei Shen 3383088 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 case benefits of enterprise social platforms [10]. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization, foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration, improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails, drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing, serve customers by satisfying their needs, reduce expenses by reducing operation cost, Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management, engage employees by satisfying them, enhance communication by improving internal communication, refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness, enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication, and final increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]. Improve employee engagement, Build more productive teams, Create a connected organization, and Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 4cce7a6d4c0f77a69346fedfff754ef84163ee5e 320 319 2014-09-25T09:36:06Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 55186bda6bd657704227b08e5965ae5d8924d49d 321 320 2014-09-25T09:36:43Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and is cloud ready. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ a89888c830e43cf66cf3ea00a5dd9c21094ab4f5 322 321 2014-09-25T10:00:52Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* Technical features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers; ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs; and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become cusotmer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers, they should also engage them and consider them partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationships managed in efficient ways. Ning, as an example of online social platforms, has been widely applied in enterprise social platform for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention, as reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 232bd54e8787627661592288940621e61281eb03 323 322 2014-09-25T10:15:26Z Arune Griciute 3383081 /* CRM features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 4f90bc613e9871c41bba58859509dcc87ee18a72 324 323 2014-09-25T10:57:00Z Jun Meng 3383084 Detailed functionality wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed functionality === Will update soon. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 65aa35d699722d07a8e129d1327c175a046f86ae 325 324 2014-09-25T12:13:35Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* Detailed functionality */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Will update soon. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and non-intended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is especially because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ cc30c043b14e44f8ec129561e7965d88fbe95753 326 325 2014-09-25T13:53:34Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed functionality === Will update soon. == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 582fdad49b3c5c41fc5c3dae0ab23d2a9f6069d9 327 326 2014-09-25T14:00:21Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* Detailed functionality */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- |} == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 3aa06633b4030e5d15e44bfa5a998be23a7772a7 328 327 2014-09-25T14:05:04Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- |} == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 92c74eda13d14fa095726f2498e189c88a92c244 329 328 2014-09-25T14:05:24Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* Detailed features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- |} == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 2a780c883ea01f053bc1eebb356c8d58111d1ef1 330 329 2014-09-25T14:10:40Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* Detailed features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It is refer to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging software for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 16352e50cd001c883c57cdbf2ef5f6dd427e8d53 331 330 2014-09-25T14:11:35Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* Detailed features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == === Successful cases === Many of the platforms are being successfully implemented: Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 49c9a487274a7268437050d80851bb21fafa44b8 334 331 2014-09-25T22:39:51Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Successful cases */ Updating the section Said wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf a57bd6c5f31d943c0ca2065a0c2d150799c2ff8d 338 334 2014-09-25T23:13:17Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Case studies */ Creating a separate for case studies and adding an intro. wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf cb91c11efe5343c974c06ce3a0ebf2e12f8f7d3a 341 338 2014-09-25T23:18:34Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Updating case studies section wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf a1cc848f18d258e92cbabdfaccd60994cebe5b8c 1 26 306 2014-09-25T03:49:43Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Created page with "I have created the page to the Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio that does not exist in Wikipedia. Feel free to add more information." wikitext text/x-wiki I have created the page to the Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio that does not exist in Wikipedia. Feel free to add more information. 42fffb792fb9d179b3d04de747a370c799d731a2 1 15 317 268 2014-09-25T07:02:40Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* Divide page */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, we need to cover the following sections and subtopics: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great Job Abdulrahman, Meng, Kaushik and Karen. == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? d047883a27d2052396232ab115c773cd5897d6d0 332 317 2014-09-25T22:33:15Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ It is a great idea. Said wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, we need to cover the following sections and subtopics: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great Job Abdulrahman, Meng, Kaushik and Karen. == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said 64fe1b0afc86a096f9451083803d521e40bf6c82 333 332 2014-09-25T22:33:43Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, we need to cover the following sections and subtopics: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great Job Abdulrahman, Meng, Kaushik and Karen. == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' 74535f938606878670a81d735b1420566a04cab4 335 333 2014-09-25T23:04:51Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Topics to be covered */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: =='''Introduction'''== =='''History'''== =='''Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features'''== =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great Job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' fe4eb8dd743d9ee5caf6fd4263f37120748d878c 337 335 2014-09-25T23:08:28Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Undo revision 335 by [[Special:Contributions/Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, we need to cover the following sections and subtopics: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great Job Abdulrahman, Meng, Kaushik and Karen. == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' 74535f938606878670a81d735b1420566a04cab4 340 337 2014-09-25T23:16:40Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Topics to be covered expanded to cover the updated version of our Wiki */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: =='''Introduction'''== =='''History'''== =='''Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features'''== =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' d4e2be738c2a47eb61073189198cc6b79b2eb3c6 343 340 2014-09-25T23:27:53Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ waiting the contributors to add detailed examples of their case studies wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon == Topics to be covered == Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: =='''Introduction'''== =='''History'''== =='''Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features'''== =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 325ae49b03df1aa5473e405fcb85f37129c536f8 345 343 2014-09-25T23:41:20Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Topics to be covered expanded to cover the updated version of our Wiki */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Introduction'''== =='''History'''== =='''Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features'''== =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' bbc694524acf8dd7a8b9eb1643f1326decd1e221 347 345 2014-09-25T23:43:08Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Introduction */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''History'''== =='''Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features'''== =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' a79f880a8f08225a9537f5d972029a90c6edd340 348 347 2014-09-25T23:43:37Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* History */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features'''== =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' a21cae650688bad5846183410b029032fedf1513 349 348 2014-09-25T23:44:44Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' d280b659b18e8366282882c1c8706500e267431c 350 349 2014-09-25T23:45:01Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''Technical features''=== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 2ef3497a1f4d3172793217da36aa440ea8024d61 351 350 2014-09-25T23:45:16Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Technical features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''CMS features''=== ===''CRM features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 6e2a0d8754cc4d24789ee1273746b0240d5fd812 352 351 2014-09-25T23:45:29Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* CRM features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''CMS features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Social features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 1dceeca9af15c09f83ca8368c904eff511c7009e 0 27 336 2014-09-25T23:06:22Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 case studies of enterprise social platforms page wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. 4abf133a07416d5e2a0c21559a1b868a9f01eb75 339 336 2014-09-25T23:16:03Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 A new page for "Successful and unsuccessful case studies of Enterprise social platforms" wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. === References === <references/> e796f3c474f3091a5178441ef5a50e64dadc2c8e 346 339 2014-09-25T23:41:39Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Successful case studies */ Adding a link to a page "Eni enterprise social platform" wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. Eni energy company uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. === References === <references/> e360c1cb5da5bc797e9265f2ffe3ecc807e4eacf 0 5 342 186 2014-09-25T23:24:08Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platform */ adding case studies page link wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' =="All-in-one" enterprise social platform== This wiki contains useful information about "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms", including its definition, features, benefits, challenges, major players/stakeholders, some successful and failed cases and its future. '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms]''' '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms The case studies of enterprise social platforms]''' page is created. The page gives a brief of successful and unsuccessful implementations of enterprise social platforms in different organisations around the World. Please [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms click here] to visit the page. ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. cfc24057fdfa8d9e7f8e9262885051a423c181b6 0 28 344 2014-09-25T23:40:10Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Creation a page about how Eni energy company is successful wikitext text/x-wiki Enterprise 2.0 is the implementation of Web 2.0 tools inside organisations as it is defined by McAfee <ref>McAfee, A. (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. This implementation should be done based on case studies to have a positive return on investments (ROI) which is considered as "the most common measure for the value-added benefits" <ref>Phillips, P. P., & Phillips, J. J. (2007). Return on investment (pp. 823-846). John Wiley & Sons, Inc..</ref>. According to Philip and Philip, ROI is used as a methodology to measure many business activities and work environment. Collaboration is considered as one of those activities measured by ROI. So, this blog is going to focus on ROI in terms of knowledge management and collaboration in one of the biggest energy organisations worldwide which is Eni. Eni is an Italian oil and gas company and it operates in 70 countries worldwide with 76,000 employees. Its adjusted net earnings is amounted to US$14.6 billion (Microsoft Case Study, 2014). Eni uses knowledge management system as it is committed in leading initiatives of renewable energies <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2013). KM versus enterprise 2.0: a framework to tame the clash. International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 12(3), 320-336.</ref>. In addition, it considers the knowledge management as an effective tool to get the advantage of the available knowledge inside the organisation and to help develop the professional staff working for the company. The Oil and Gas companies pay tens of millions yearly to a third party to do researches in the field of Oil and Gas to find sufficient ways in oil explorations and delivery either to their plant or to customers. It is considered as a big cost to those organisations at the end regardless the benefits they get out of this. Eni found that introducing knowledge to its employees through a well designed system and getting their knowledge and share it through the same system will enhance the work and work as corporate culture catalyst. This has been helping the company solving many issues that are related to their business field. == Brief overview of the Enterprise 2.0 project == Knowledge management systems (KM) is embraced and used by big companies in different business areas such as computers, automobiles, oil, and aviation by implementing Web 2.0 applications such as blogs, twitter, youtube, Facebook and other social networking tools<ref>Grace, T. P. L. (2009). Wikis as a knowledge management tool. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(4), 64-74.</ref>. If we come to Eni, it uses Microsoft technologies which is Microsoft SharePoint to achieve its collaboration and knowledge management needs through systemising the current knowledge and getting a new knowledge from its employee to be spread to the public within the organisation. Eni does the implementation of enterprise 2.0 in different stages to get a successful KM. It started with Communities of Practice (CoP) which is the use of collaboration and portal tools that are integrated with the business process of the organisation (www.eni.com, 2014). CoP gives the opportunity for employees -being in different communities- to share their expertise and experience on their company issues to support their company business process <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>. In addition, the company started the introduction of the Knowledge Owner into its system to support its business positioning in the oil and gas market. The idea is to have those well-know figures in their field by having their solid knowledge gained over a long successful period of time to be shared with Eni's employees through the system and other communication channels <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>. So, Eni is aware of the strong impact the social media has in terms of collaboration and knowledge management. Thus, Eni implemented social media to reduce the project processing time and increasing productivity and performance of the company by inviting its employee to use the social media through having their own profiles, posts, sharing documents, post their own blogs, and posting their ideas to improve the business process and work environment in their organisation <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>. == Return On Investment == In terms of tangible benefits, Eni have been investing in Enterprise 2.0 in purpose to have a effective knowledge management that in turn helps have a efficient collaboration internal and external. The results proves the success of this implementation by the tangible and intangible results. The implementation of Communities of Practice helped get "an increase in production equals to tens of thousands of barrels was obtained at zero cost" <ref>Microsoft Case Study: Microsoft Sharepoint Server - Eni. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server/Eni/Microsoft-SharePoint-Shines-For-Eni-s-Collaboration-Needs/4000006412</ref>. In addition, the ROI for the knowledge management platform equaled 25 times the cost of the project itself with 20% increase in revenues in second year <ref>Microsoft Case Study: Microsoft Sharepoint Server - Eni. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server/Eni/Microsoft-SharePoint-Shines-For-Eni-s-Collaboration-Needs/4000006412</ref>. For example, to support these figures, the company had a problem in Pakistan and it got solved by their office in Venezuela in less than 24 hours by a successful collaboration. This incident helped Eni save a lot of money to the company assets. In terms of intangible benefits, as the knowledge management system is accessible by all organisation levels, there is a fast responding to changes and all levels help to give a positive contribution to get a valuable advantage <ref>Microsoft Case Study: Microsoft Sharepoint Server - Eni. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server/Eni/Microsoft-SharePoint-Shines-For-Eni-s-Collaboration-Needs/4000006412</ref>. The social media also helped increase employees contributions because it was designed based on their needs too so it was trusted by those employees. Moreover, the knowledge exchange process was dynamic in all aspects such as analysis, participation, innovation, enthusiastic reaction <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>.. According to McKinsey, this kind of collaborations help the company overcome most issues and help increase the performance and productivity of the whole organisation<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. == References == <references/> 5c54225edec1a7ef9b4eabc3a6996715196f60bd 1 15 353 352 2014-09-25T23:45:43Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms'''== =='''Features'''== ===''CMS features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' a68334057d55a16ae7db692e6353864fa29e519b 356 353 2014-09-25T23:49:49Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Features'''== ===''CMS features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' ef87eb9fca124d08793f84cd0eb711d740d0a347 358 356 2014-09-25T23:50:05Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* CMS features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Features'''== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 066ca5491a97389a4e3b3a975ac0ab3f28e5a5aa 359 358 2014-09-25T23:50:19Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Detailed features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Features'''== ===''LMS features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 3482ca9cdea04c00604686456dadaae6f02b6d6f 360 359 2014-09-25T23:50:58Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* LMS features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Features'''== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 066ca5491a97389a4e3b3a975ac0ab3f28e5a5aa 361 360 2014-09-25T23:51:11Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Features */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::Introduction ::History ::Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Features'''== ===''CMS features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' ef87eb9fca124d08793f84cd0eb711d740d0a347 362 361 2014-09-25T23:53:42Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Topics to be covered */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::#Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::#Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! =='''Features'''== ===''CMS features''=== ===''LMS features''=== ===''Detailed features''=== =='''Case studies'''== ===''Successful cases''=== ===''Unsuccessful cases''=== =='''Future of all-in-one social platforms'''== ===''Technology''=== ===''Business''=== ===''Social''=== =='''Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms'''== ===''User Engagement Levels''=== ===''Security of Information''=== ===''Issues of Privacy''=== ===''Lack Of adoption''=== ===''Transparency and Misconception''=== ===''Behavioural issues''=== =='''Criticism'''== The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 3f94482083008054867340af9bdee079a0330171 363 362 2014-09-25T23:55:12Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::#Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::#Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' 6ca785e3c2db9f0e86921f7695795a0c83b5fe5d 364 363 2014-09-25T23:56:59Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ Eni case study finished wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::#Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::#Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said 9c87418d235b566aa846dfedfa8a788675b110a4 380 364 2014-09-26T01:07:03Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Divide page - new pages and linking back to main page*/ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::#Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::#Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) c4101a3daf7679e6bdfa028affdf914717a7aabc 381 380 2014-09-26T01:11:01Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ Reply to Abdulrahman wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following sections and subtopics, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features :::Technical features :::CMS features :::CRM features :::LMS features :::Social features :::Detailed features ::#Case studies :::Successful cases :::Unsuccessful cases ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms :::Technology :::Business :::Social ::Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms :::User Engagement Levels :::Security of Information :::Issues of Privacy :::Lack Of adoption :::Transparency and Misconception :::Behavioural issues ::#Criticism The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. 60c1f0d891f26858b02769be5f7e642238ba851d 383 381 2014-09-26T01:13:41Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Topics to be covered */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == Microsoft: We're Investing In Enterprise Social http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. b7d3f89a630167ded1ca75b311cba04cdb023322 388 383 2014-09-26T01:23:04Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Useful Readings - other readings added*/ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. f2a256e1fc46a2b6ef1426ffa08348cb2aa441ea 392 388 2014-09-26T01:26:58Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Divide page */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. 76384ed1878210ff7f6d581b38a78f4b0dabcfc1 399 392 2014-09-26T02:36:20Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Who are the major players? */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. 007382493db4850ebb1c34c9620ab91fe25ef42b 401 399 2014-09-26T02:44:45Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. 4437e6baae9639c1e4aa0b8fc0760403c9ae2199 1 29 354 2014-09-25T23:47:16Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Actions plan for writing the case studies wikitext text/x-wiki Hi Everyone, this page is special for the successful and unsuccessful case studies related to the implementation of enterprise social platforms. == Case studies from '''Said Al Ghanami''' == '''Eni''' (it is done), please [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform check here] 4f2de043812bec3e5bd17940ddee7adb8c7879c7 0 27 355 346 2014-09-25T23:49:21Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Successful case studies */ Highlighting Eni issue wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. '''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. === References === <references/> 9bcb9b7f59e46049c9426826784e3f117b2e7175 357 355 2014-09-25T23:49:58Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 Spell correction wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. '''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. === References === <references/> 84f5eddf9751ddb8c529243f14b9f662eaa6d693 376 357 2014-09-26T00:56:42Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Case studies - links back to main page added */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. Boston Children’s Hospital uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. Alcatel-Lucent telecommunication introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. CEMEX, the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. The luxury goods designer Burberry strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. '''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. In the year 2008, National Instruments (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, Cathay Pacific Airlines implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: <ul> <li>Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts</li> <li>Using electronic instead of paper updates</li> <li>Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time</li> <li>rapid feedback on policy changes</li> </ul> You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> 06713b6dd36a370859b0c5ce3cebac6905d4f114 0 14 365 341 2014-09-26T00:01:55Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices . This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 0698a6a54a9e04645de73f46673bc44e1c5452fa 366 365 2014-09-26T00:03:36Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 6571aa28a51566057a788bcb0ce491a3185a0584 367 366 2014-09-26T00:05:54Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 5718335d5324837e7b9cc3a476e1acc3f2722693 368 367 2014-09-26T00:19:29Z Bader Abdullah M Alhomoud 3383074 /* Social */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== === Technology === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf f5f338b3a576615a06a3041b89ae4b1c8959525a 370 368 2014-09-26T00:36:30Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms - new page created for the content */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in- one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 1382f4ac600320b6793f5b6ce34c429d5b6ca32e 371 370 2014-09-26T00:38:24Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms - new page created for the content */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf e95e14d0e2c1ffa7fa20d5b147c28c6c7d7a4994 372 371 2014-09-26T00:44:15Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf cdc55e98ab24df67c857759403be056073f19c02 373 372 2014-09-26T00:46:24Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Gartner. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===''Technology Aspects''=== ===''Business Aspects''=== ===''Social Aspects''=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf f99067d9852e7503c106d1d44699401d10e29fca 375 373 2014-09-26T00:54:53Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* Features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===''Technology Aspects''=== ===''Business Aspects''=== ===''Social Aspects''=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf ceadffb0031d899d2c6b022bee57716e9f9d933d 377 375 2014-09-26T00:58:04Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms - italics in subtopics removed */ wikitext text/x-wiki == ''' Introduction ''' == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf be75935fd0c6a72bf5a9f8c7804a86bc738364ba 378 377 2014-09-26T01:01:28Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Introduction - bold in "Introduction removed for uniformity with other main titles"*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 215ae3ce0ae98b9adf670188ae0802579df7737c 379 378 2014-09-26T01:06:48Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Technical features */ the technical features: availability and compatibility wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 7271545eb333f148638a608c5cb172b32fdcedfe 396 379 2014-09-26T02:02:58Z Faizan Valangar Mohammed 3383091 wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other.<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 5d2c8dfa53dac88365c4f4d039fdca4f7a7d720b 397 396 2014-09-26T02:04:57Z Faizan Valangar Mohammed 3383091 wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 05dc4b637ee63771fa4ed5130dd85f7cb4fe341c 398 397 2014-09-26T02:09:35Z Faizan Valangar Mohammed 3383091 wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 200f6e9e7a35381bd8936afa56f937e0c87dac67 400 398 2014-09-26T02:38:08Z Faizan Valangar Mohammed 3383091 wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. Tibbr is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which the organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is a success<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf adf7c09900961a6a88d63ca6e260b73eaff21d4c 402 400 2014-09-26T02:48:45Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: ===Technology Aspects=== ===Business Aspects=== ===Social Aspects=== A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which the organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is a success<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf acbeafdd12c789021ea64c3237b193b056c88e20 0 30 369 2014-09-26T00:35:22Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 Created new page for the Future of All-In-One Social Platforms wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. == References == <references/> 89b11c792ffbd6e8c75d22c0ec500f627266102e 374 369 2014-09-26T00:52:38Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Future of All-In-One Social Platforms - Link back to main page added*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> == References == <references/> 930604ee36b33a29ce8f46e7a1e5f5237d78bd7f 6 31 382 2014-09-26T01:13:31Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 0 32 384 2014-09-26T01:14:05Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Created page with "[[File:Chatter.png|600px|thumb|right|Salesforce Chatter text]] [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Salesforce Chatter] was developed internally by [http://www.sales..." wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Chatter.png|600px|thumb|right|Salesforce Chatter text]] [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Salesforce Chatter] was developed internally by [http://www.salesforce.com/au/?ir=1 salesforce.com] and was further developed following the acquisition of a small company called GroupSwim, in 2009, which was based out of San Francisco and Sweden. Salesforce Chatter was made generally available in 2010.<ref> Sussin, J., Maoz, M. Moving On Up: Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SAP's Social Applications for CRM [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2852217?srcId=1-2819006590&pcp=itg</ref> ==Functionality== Chatter's functionality includes features such as profiles, status updates, activity feeds and file sharing, and it is available for several mobile devices. Chatter let's employees stay in contact with everyone in the workplace. Only people that have a corporate e-mail account can join the network. <ref>Scott, D. What is Chatter.com? [Internet]. Complex.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/02/what-is-chatter-com </ref> To see a demo on how Salesforce Chatter works, follow the link to the video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsK2nXp-fWs#t=88 Salesforce.com: Get Started with Salesforce Chatter - A New Way to Collaborate] ==Licenses and Cost== Chatter is free for companies that have implemented one CRM license, with up to 5000 employees. Chatter Plus is a level up from Chatter and includes additional CRM features within Chatter. For example, account information and workflow, as well as the ability for customizations and integrations with apps from the salesforce.com AppExchange. Chatter Plus has an extra per-user cost per month. Chatter Plus integrates social collaboration and costs $15 per user/month. <ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==Successful implementations== Companies that currently use Salesforce include General Electric, Bayer Universal, Commonwealth Bank and NBC Universal. <ref>Salesforce. Customer stories [Internet]. Salesforce. [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ </ref> More success stories available in [https://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatterhttps://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatter Salesforce page]. f334c17b0c7b8a9cf6c5bd09276591371afa1f3b 385 384 2014-09-26T01:14:50Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Chatter.png|400px|thumb|right|Salesforce Chatter text]] [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Salesforce Chatter] was developed internally by [http://www.salesforce.com/au/?ir=1 salesforce.com] and was further developed following the acquisition of a small company called GroupSwim, in 2009, which was based out of San Francisco and Sweden. Salesforce Chatter was made generally available in 2010.<ref> Sussin, J., Maoz, M. Moving On Up: Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SAP's Social Applications for CRM [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2852217?srcId=1-2819006590&pcp=itg</ref> ==Functionality== Chatter's functionality includes features such as profiles, status updates, activity feeds and file sharing, and it is available for several mobile devices. Chatter let's employees stay in contact with everyone in the workplace. Only people that have a corporate e-mail account can join the network. <ref>Scott, D. What is Chatter.com? [Internet]. Complex.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/02/what-is-chatter-com </ref> To see a demo on how Salesforce Chatter works, follow the link to the video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsK2nXp-fWs#t=88 Salesforce.com: Get Started with Salesforce Chatter - A New Way to Collaborate] ==Licenses and Cost== Chatter is free for companies that have implemented one CRM license, with up to 5000 employees. Chatter Plus is a level up from Chatter and includes additional CRM features within Chatter. For example, account information and workflow, as well as the ability for customizations and integrations with apps from the salesforce.com AppExchange. Chatter Plus has an extra per-user cost per month. Chatter Plus integrates social collaboration and costs $15 per user/month. <ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==Successful implementations== Companies that currently use Salesforce include General Electric, Bayer Universal, Commonwealth Bank and NBC Universal. <ref>Salesforce. Customer stories [Internet]. Salesforce. [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ </ref> More success stories available in [https://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatterhttps://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatter Salesforce page]. ==Refereces== </ references> bc964a94201452d278048bf391a86126764b4fb1 386 385 2014-09-26T01:15:33Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /*Salesforce Chatter*/ wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Chatter.png|400px|thumb|right|Salesforce Chatter text]] [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Salesforce Chatter] was developed internally by [http://www.salesforce.com/au/?ir=1 salesforce.com] and was further developed following the acquisition of a small company called GroupSwim, in 2009, which was based out of San Francisco and Sweden. Salesforce Chatter was made generally available in 2010.<ref> Sussin, J., Maoz, M. Moving On Up: Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SAP's Social Applications for CRM [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2852217?srcId=1-2819006590&pcp=itg</ref> ==Functionality== Chatter's functionality includes features such as profiles, status updates, activity feeds and file sharing, and it is available for several mobile devices. Chatter let's employees stay in contact with everyone in the workplace. Only people that have a corporate e-mail account can join the network. <ref>Scott, D. What is Chatter.com? [Internet]. Complex.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/02/what-is-chatter-com </ref> To see a demo on how Salesforce Chatter works, follow the link to the video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsK2nXp-fWs#t=88 Salesforce.com: Get Started with Salesforce Chatter - A New Way to Collaborate] ==Licenses and Cost== Chatter is free for companies that have implemented one CRM license, with up to 5000 employees. Chatter Plus is a level up from Chatter and includes additional CRM features within Chatter. For example, account information and workflow, as well as the ability for customizations and integrations with apps from the salesforce.com AppExchange. Chatter Plus has an extra per-user cost per month. Chatter Plus integrates social collaboration and costs $15 per user/month. <ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==Successful implementations== Companies that currently use Salesforce include General Electric, Bayer Universal, Commonwealth Bank and NBC Universal. <ref>Salesforce. Customer stories [Internet]. Salesforce. [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ </ref> More success stories available in [https://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatterhttps://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatter Salesforce page]. ==Refereces== <references/> 7e565567ddc870af3fa1e85862ecb1b11ba9a68f 394 386 2014-09-26T01:38:02Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /*Salesforce Chatter*/ wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Chatter.png|400px|thumb|right|Salesforce Chatter text]] [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Salesforce Chatter] was developed internally by [http://www.salesforce.com/au/?ir=1 salesforce.com] and was further developed following the acquisition of a small company called GroupSwim, in 2009, which was based out of San Francisco and Sweden. Salesforce Chatter was made generally available in 2010.<ref name="gartner"> Sussin, J., Maoz, M. Moving On Up: Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SAP's Social Applications for CRM [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2852217?srcId=1-2819006590&pcp=itg</ref> ==Functionality== Chatter's functionality includes features such as profiles, status updates, activity feeds and file sharing, and it is available for several mobile devices.<ref name="gartner" /> Chatter let's employees stay in contact with everyone in the workplace. Only people that have a corporate e-mail account can join the network. <ref name="complex">Scott, D. What is Chatter.com? [Internet]. Complex.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/02/what-is-chatter-com </ref> To see a demo on how Salesforce Chatter works, follow the link to the video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsK2nXp-fWs#t=88 Salesforce.com: Get Started with Salesforce Chatter - A New Way to Collaborate] ==Licenses and Cost== Chatter is free for companies that have implemented one CRM license, with up to 5000 employees.<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Chatter Plus is a level up from Chatter and includes additional CRM features within Chatter. For example, account information and workflow, as well as the ability for customizations and integrations with apps from the salesforce.com AppExchange. Chatter Plus has an extra per-user cost per month. <ref name="gartner" /> Chatter Plus integrates social collaboration and costs $15 per user/month.<ref name="mashable" /> ==Successful implementations== Companies that currently use Salesforce include General Electric, Bayer Universal, Commonwealth Bank and NBC Universal. <ref>Salesforce. Customer stories [Internet]. Salesforce. [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ </ref> More success stories available in [https://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatterhttps://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatter Salesforce page]. ==Refereces== <references/> 0915d08733e79ab7ed54dcb706df8afdc35be476 1 33 387 2014-09-26T01:16:22Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Created page with "I have created the page for Salesforce Chatter given that it does not exist in Wikipedia. Feel free to add content." wikitext text/x-wiki I have created the page for Salesforce Chatter given that it does not exist in Wikipedia. Feel free to add content. 4c646d33493daec75e9fd73ba768a3ac7788a63d 395 387 2014-09-26T01:38:33Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki I have created the page for Salesforce Chatter given that it does not exist in Wikipedia. Feel free to add content. But be aware of the multiple referencing. 9c0a0eaf97f5a930b278b95a28df979e3a1f593e 0 20 389 237 2014-09-26T01:23:20Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|400px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], Tibbr is a social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. [http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration] The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the Tibbr social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace). <ref>Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Tibbr can be deployed from a company's corporate data center, or through a cloud environment hosted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO]. <ref> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> ==Features<ref> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref>== *'''Contextual'''. With its unique approach, tibbr allows information to be organized by subject or topic. Leveraging its highly customizable structure and classification system, you can tailor an information model and hierarchy that works best for the business and workforce. *'''Relevant'''. As not all topics matter equally to each person, tibbr allows users to create, contribute, and subscribe to the event streams that matter most to their roles and interests. Users also have complete control of the frequency in which they receive notifications – right down to the individual subject. *'''Integrated'''. Information from any existing application can be mapped to specific subjects. Instead of constantly checking different systems or calling someone for updates, tibbr can instantly notify you and your team of the change you are looking for. *'''Accessible'''. Whether at home, on the move, or at work, users can publish and receive tibbr updates anytime, anywhere. Sharing information has never been so easy. *'''Secure'''. Whether for use on-premise or hosted in a cloud environment by TIBCO, tibbr is designed to meet all your data security needs. Integration is quick and simple – often only requiring a few hours – and ensures all data storage and user access points meet enterprise-level security, compliance, and audit requirements. Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. ==Licenses== Tibbr licenses start at $12 per user per month, for either the on-premise or cloud-based version of the product, with per seat pricing declining with volume. The company offers a free 60 day trial, but does not offer an ongoing freemium option, because, as Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing, has said in the past, “Yammer does that for us.” As overconfident as this may sound, the fact that as of April 2013, 75 percent of all Tibbr users had switched from Yammer seems to back up the claim. <ref>Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> ==Tibbr's impact== Tibbr has grown from 1.5 million paid users to 6.5 million paid users between 2012 and 2013, and now has users in 7,000 global cities. By comparison, Yammer had just 800,000 paid users when it sold to Microsoft in 2012. Companies that are using Tibbr, include<ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref>: * [http://www.macys.com/ Macy's] * [http://www.ihealthlabs.com/ iHealth] * [http://interportpolice.org/ InterPortPolice] ==Devices== All Tibbr's features are available across desktop, Web, and mobile, with support for the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms from 2,100 distinct mobile device models. ==References== <references /> 3cb7f295b89134df144c72401f92e38b958b0e58 390 389 2014-09-26T01:24:01Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|500px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], Tibbr is a social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. [http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration] The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the Tibbr social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace). <ref>Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Tibbr can be deployed from a company's corporate data center, or through a cloud environment hosted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO]. <ref> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> ==Features<ref> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref>== *'''Contextual'''. With its unique approach, tibbr allows information to be organized by subject or topic. Leveraging its highly customizable structure and classification system, you can tailor an information model and hierarchy that works best for the business and workforce. *'''Relevant'''. As not all topics matter equally to each person, tibbr allows users to create, contribute, and subscribe to the event streams that matter most to their roles and interests. Users also have complete control of the frequency in which they receive notifications – right down to the individual subject. *'''Integrated'''. Information from any existing application can be mapped to specific subjects. Instead of constantly checking different systems or calling someone for updates, tibbr can instantly notify you and your team of the change you are looking for. *'''Accessible'''. Whether at home, on the move, or at work, users can publish and receive tibbr updates anytime, anywhere. Sharing information has never been so easy. *'''Secure'''. Whether for use on-premise or hosted in a cloud environment by TIBCO, tibbr is designed to meet all your data security needs. Integration is quick and simple – often only requiring a few hours – and ensures all data storage and user access points meet enterprise-level security, compliance, and audit requirements. Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. ==Licenses== Tibbr licenses start at $12 per user per month, for either the on-premise or cloud-based version of the product, with per seat pricing declining with volume. The company offers a free 60 day trial, but does not offer an ongoing freemium option, because, as Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing, has said in the past, “Yammer does that for us.” As overconfident as this may sound, the fact that as of April 2013, 75 percent of all Tibbr users had switched from Yammer seems to back up the claim. <ref>Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> ==Tibbr's impact== Tibbr has grown from 1.5 million paid users to 6.5 million paid users between 2012 and 2013, and now has users in 7,000 global cities. By comparison, Yammer had just 800,000 paid users when it sold to Microsoft in 2012. Companies that are using Tibbr, include<ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref>: * [http://www.macys.com/ Macy's] * [http://www.ihealthlabs.com/ iHealth] * [http://interportpolice.org/ InterPortPolice] ==Devices== All Tibbr's features are available across desktop, Web, and mobile, with support for the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms from 2,100 distinct mobile device models. ==References== <references /> f4902f6284505ad0610527eaf8cd7345d1be69e4 393 390 2014-09-26T01:35:03Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /tibbr/ wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|500px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], Tibbr is a social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. <ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the Tibbr social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace). <ref name="mashable">Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Tibbr can be deployed from a company's corporate data center, or through a cloud environment hosted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO]. <ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> ==Features<ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref>== *'''Contextual'''. With its unique approach, tibbr allows information to be organized by subject or topic. Leveraging its highly customizable structure and classification system, you can tailor an information model and hierarchy that works best for the business and workforce. *'''Relevant'''. As not all topics matter equally to each person, tibbr allows users to create, contribute, and subscribe to the event streams that matter most to their roles and interests. Users also have complete control of the frequency in which they receive notifications – right down to the individual subject. *'''Integrated'''. Information from any existing application can be mapped to specific subjects. Instead of constantly checking different systems or calling someone for updates, tibbr can instantly notify you and your team of the change you are looking for. *'''Accessible'''. Whether at home, on the move, or at work, users can publish and receive tibbr updates anytime, anywhere. Sharing information has never been so easy. *'''Secure'''. Whether for use on-premise or hosted in a cloud environment by TIBCO, tibbr is designed to meet all your data security needs. Integration is quick and simple – often only requiring a few hours – and ensures all data storage and user access points meet enterprise-level security, compliance, and audit requirements. Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. ==Licenses== Tibbr licenses start at $12 per user per month, for either the on-premise or cloud-based version of the product, with per seat pricing declining with volume. The company offers a free 60 day trial, but does not offer an ongoing freemium option, because, as Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing, has said in the past, “Yammer does that for us.” As overconfident as this may sound, the fact that as of April 2013, 75 percent of all Tibbr users had switched from Yammer seems to back up the claim. <ref name="pando">Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> ==Tibbr's impact== Tibbr has grown from 1.5 million paid users to 6.5 million paid users between 2012 and 2013, and now has users in 7,000 global cities. By comparison, Yammer had just 800,000 paid users when it sold to Microsoft in 2012. <ref name="pando">Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> Companies that are using Tibbr, include<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref>: * [http://www.macys.com/ Macy's] * [http://www.ihealthlabs.com/ iHealth] * [http://interportpolice.org/ InterPortPolice] ==Devices== All Tibbr's features are available across desktop, Web, and mobile, with support for the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms from 2,100 distinct mobile device models.<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==References== <references /> c833ba274462288664660fbd3767efad2c619f37 1 21 391 242 2014-09-26T01:24:23Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki I have created the page for Tibbr since it does not exist in Wikipedia. 4878fe4fdeadbd91282c8024d15371101b875d76 0 14 403 402 2014-09-26T02:49:53Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which the organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is a success<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf cc18bdbe5188b729e293867386690de7f3d0d685 411 403 2014-09-26T04:16:47Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 Adding content wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Why Social Enterprise Matters == Social enterprise greatly matters for any organisation because it focusses on making positive change anytime when it is needed. Social media is a powerful tool that directly and indirectly making our world a better place. Social enterprise is more effective, it doesn’t rely on any altering government and organisational policies; it grows on for making the changes that are essential for the community and growth for the organisation. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which the organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is a success<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 95b0fce2aa7aa93a67406a11d126d8b0df67315e 416 411 2014-09-26T04:29:18Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Why Social Enterprise Matters == Social enterprise greatly matters for any organisation because it focusses on making positive change anytime whenever needed. Social media is a powerful tool that directly and indirectly makes our world a better place. Social enterprise is more effective, it doesn’t rely on any altering government and organisational policies; it grows on for making the changes that are essential for the community and growth for the organisation. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack Of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which the organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is a success<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf ebb25f75841158e07682a81c7b5bab1315231fe4 417 416 2014-09-26T04:47:30Z Faizan Valangar Mohammed 3383091 wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Why Social Enterprise Matters == Social enterprise greatly matters for any organisation because it focusses on making positive change anytime whenever needed. Social media is a powerful tool that directly and indirectly makes our world a better place. Social enterprise is more effective, it doesn’t rely on any altering government and organisational policies; it grows on for making the changes that are essential for the community and growth for the organisation. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organization 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which the organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is a success<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf e62ea47019b26c67cd22e2902db23276216c2129 418 417 2014-09-26T05:05:47Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Some corrections wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which the organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is a success<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf cbfffac9b6e16ea17e76adb0835bc05547fec0cc 419 418 2014-09-26T05:13:44Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 0798d1a1ff1012fe26a371b8960457e31a999f23 420 419 2014-09-26T05:48:19Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 Adding content. wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf e584cd39eb09ea17137d1d0391fe56ff17987e16 421 420 2014-09-26T05:54:49Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 Adding content wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. ==Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication== ===Socialtext=== [http://www.socialtext.com/ Socialtext] provides a convenient way to increase productivity and encourage employee engagement. The Socialtext dashboard provides all the relevant information you need in one place. It tries to provide the users with a newsfeed which covers both company related information, as well as important news from external sources. With its content creation functionality, teams are able to create pages which everyone can contribute to simultaneously. With the help of its interface, users are are able to see how similar they are to each other<ref>Socialtext.com. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Software - Socialtext Features. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://www.socialtext.com/features/</ref>. ===Tibbr=== [http://www.tibbr.com/ Tibbr] is designed to enhance the experience of using your desktop or mobile phone. It has borrowed the profile layout from Facebook where you can see the professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. Furthermore you can follow topics, people etc and also see who else has the same likes, just like Facebook. It also provides an “Insights” tab where people can see what’s happening inside their network. Apps that are integrated on their network are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Box, Evernote and LinkedIn. They have integrated with third-party meeting and video chat service, so that Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts can be directly accessed through their interface<ref>Mashable. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved 25 September 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/</ref>. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 4f6aebc63267344dfc0f6fb06663ad245d9f36a1 423 421 2014-09-26T06:00:58Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Deleting "Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication" as it has repeating information. wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the [[Future of all-in-one social platforms]] gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf ec6ecd27fd873244676766f92912d5d54168ba21 426 423 2014-09-26T06:46:12Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Future of all-in-one social platforms */ Change the format of the link "Future of all-in-one social platforms" to be more visible to readers wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf d77e4df30538fca4cab22b2224fb3c3323a93669 428 426 2014-09-26T06:53:15Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication: |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 4ccf7ad1c1064c9d05299d2c2ae68503ab5ca37f 429 428 2014-09-26T07:51:32Z Jun Meng 3383084 /* Detailed features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 5a58713d7198276d22e087828e94756206ca40b2 438 429 2014-09-26T11:45:45Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms - added some more benefits and uses of Enterprise Social platforms*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf be038b2882d710cef58de8d118c917318bc8dee7 441 438 2014-09-26T11:55:10Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms - added Oktopost to the list*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 8512082589e675c5b2aff238ef24f1d7a0070ef2 444 441 2014-09-26T12:39:45Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 collabration of social media tools wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 6ab1d6e9d40d6888aa095b4b3ef99f9d493c4a46 445 444 2014-09-26T12:51:16Z Duy Nguyen 3383085 /* Social features */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 77d08d0e85259cef3fe58e10190885235f3c25c3 0 20 404 393 2014-09-26T02:54:13Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /*Tibbr*/ wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|500px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], Tibbr is a social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. <ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the Tibbr social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace). <ref name="mashable">Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Tibbr can be deployed from a company's corporate data center, or through a cloud environment hosted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO]. <ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> ==Features<ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref>== *'''Contextual'''. With its unique approach, tibbr allows information to be organized by subject or topic. Leveraging its highly customizable structure and classification system, you can tailor an information model and hierarchy that works best for the business and workforce. *'''Relevant'''. As not all topics matter equally to each person, tibbr allows users to create, contribute, and subscribe to the event streams that matter most to their roles and interests. Users also have complete control of the frequency in which they receive notifications – right down to the individual subject. *'''Integrated'''. Information from any existing application can be mapped to specific subjects. Instead of constantly checking different systems or calling someone for updates, tibbr can instantly notify you and your team of the change you are looking for. *'''Accessible'''. Whether at home, on the move, or at work, users can publish and receive tibbr updates anytime, anywhere. Sharing information has never been so easy. *'''Secure'''. Whether for use on-premise or hosted in a cloud environment by TIBCO, tibbr is designed to meet all your data security needs. Integration is quick and simple – often only requiring a few hours – and ensures all data storage and user access points meet enterprise-level security, compliance, and audit requirements. Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. ==Licenses== Tibbr licenses start at $12 per user per month, for either the on-premise or cloud-based version of the product, with per seat pricing declining with volume. The company offers a free 60 day trial, but does not offer an ongoing freemium option, because, as Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing, has said in the past, “Yammer does that for us.” As overconfident as this may sound, the fact that as of April 2013, 75 percent of all Tibbr users had switched from Yammer seems to back up the claim. <ref name="pando">Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> ==Tibbr's impact== Tibbr has grown from 1.5 million paid users to 6.5 million paid users between 2012 and 2013, and now has users in 7,000 global cities. By comparison, Yammer had just 800,000 paid users when it sold to Microsoft in 2012. <ref name="pando">Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> Companies that are using Tibbr, include<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref>: * [http://www.macys.com/ Macy's] * [http://www.ihealthlabs.com/ iHealth] * [http://interportpolice.org/ InterPortPolice] ==Devices== All Tibbr's features are available across desktop, Web, and mobile, with support for the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms from 2,100 distinct mobile device models.<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> To read more about other Enterprise Social Networks, please go to [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] ==References== <references /> 0fcb3311237d7ebed88d79e7d5011118c8a8f427 0 32 405 394 2014-09-26T02:56:32Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /*Salesforce Chatter*/ wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Chatter.png|400px|thumb|right|Salesforce Chatter text]] [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Salesforce Chatter] was developed internally by [http://www.salesforce.com/au/?ir=1 salesforce.com] and was further developed following the acquisition of a small company called GroupSwim, in 2009, which was based out of San Francisco and Sweden. Salesforce Chatter was made generally available in 2010.<ref name="gartner"> Sussin, J., Maoz, M. Moving On Up: Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SAP's Social Applications for CRM [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2852217?srcId=1-2819006590&pcp=itg</ref> ==Functionality== Chatter's functionality includes features such as profiles, status updates, activity feeds and file sharing, and it is available for several mobile devices.<ref name="gartner" /> Chatter let's employees stay in contact with everyone in the workplace. Only people that have a corporate e-mail account can join the network. <ref name="complex">Scott, D. What is Chatter.com? [Internet]. Complex.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/02/what-is-chatter-com </ref> To see a demo on how Salesforce Chatter works, follow the link to the video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsK2nXp-fWs#t=88 Salesforce.com: Get Started with Salesforce Chatter - A New Way to Collaborate] ==Licenses and Cost== Chatter is free for companies that have implemented one CRM license, with up to 5000 employees.<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Chatter Plus is a level up from Chatter and includes additional CRM features within Chatter. For example, account information and workflow, as well as the ability for customizations and integrations with apps from the salesforce.com AppExchange. Chatter Plus has an extra per-user cost per month. <ref name="gartner" /> Chatter Plus integrates social collaboration and costs $15 per user/month.<ref name="mashable" /> ==Successful implementations== Companies that currently use Salesforce include General Electric, Bayer Universal, Commonwealth Bank and NBC Universal. <ref>Salesforce. Customer stories [Internet]. Salesforce. [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ </ref> More success stories available in [https://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatterhttps://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatter Salesforce page] To read about success stories of implementation, please go to [[Case studies of enterprise social platforms]]. To know more about [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]], follow the link. ==Refereces== <references/> 9033cab4bf4841d72e5b76bb2cdf0f3ff1a92472 0 27 406 376 2014-09-26T03:01:33Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* Successful case studies */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> 7541631882e996c6b20529c51e6d49bd3179e80b 433 406 2014-09-26T08:53:13Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Successful case studies - added Successful case about Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In later 2013, Bloomfire, a social collaboration tool used in the building of communities integrated very well with Salesforce.com and helped the sales team perform better through the sharing of expertise. Crowdsourcing enhanced the speed of getting answers. The Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com helped improve access to knowledge resources from people within the organization who may readily have answers. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref>. Bloomfire helps in getting the information that the sales and the service teams require in order to convert more leads, close many deals, and serve the customers much effectively. <ref>Kim Carlson & Omri Goldshtrom, (2013). "Salesforce integration: bringing Bloomfire where you work" information retrieved from https://community.bloomfire.com/posts/710399-salesforce-integration-bringing-bloomfire-where-you-work/public</ref>. Salesforce application promotes interaction that drives continuous participation throughout the Bloomfire community. So, there is a balance in participation and as a result everyone contributes. Hence, Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com is as an effective enterprise social platform. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> d843c1aa23ed60d3e37e6eafe1a9535cf343ae86 437 433 2014-09-26T11:37:52Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In later 2013, Bloomfire, a social collaboration tool used in the building of communities integrated very well with Salesforce.com and helped the sales team perform better through the sharing of expertise. Crowdsourcing enhanced the speed of getting answers. The Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com helped improve access to knowledge resources from people within the organization who may readily have answers. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref>. Bloomfire helps in getting the information that the sales and the service teams require in order to convert more leads, close many deals, and serve the customers much effectively. <ref>Kim Carlson & Omri Goldshtrom, (2013). "Salesforce integration: bringing Bloomfire where you work" information retrieved from https://community.bloomfire.com/posts/710399-salesforce-integration-bringing-bloomfire-where-you-work/public</ref>. Salesforce application promotes interaction that drives continuous participation throughout the Bloomfire community. So, there is a balance in participation and as a result everyone contributes. Hence, Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com is as an effective enterprise social platform. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. Another unsuccessful case study is about two Australian local government organisations. These two local government organisations initially found that adding an internal social media tool creates one communications tool too many. Both the local government organisations have abandoned trials of enterprise social network Yammer as a result of their experiences <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. According to Amanda Callbutt, formerly of the IT support office at the Local Government Association (LGA) of South Australia, says the organisation trialled Yammer after being introduced to the tool by [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte], which has evangelised the software. She says, the people that were using '''Yammer''' initially were tech savvy and strong users of social media already and wanted it to succeed. However, beyond that tech-savvy group, other users were not enthusiastic <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. [http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ Wingecarribee Shire Council] had a similar story to tell. According to Andy Carnahan, Information Services Manager, looked at '''Yammer'''because their General Manager attended to a presentation where a presenter from [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte] said they use it and publically praised its capabilities <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. The IT team was asked to implement a trial which Information Services and team found simple to implement. The Information Services team introduced '''Yammer''' on people who would be interested, such as the community relations team, the General Manager and the executives. The outcome of this trail session was that the usage was very irregular. Andy Carnahan says, there would be a outbreak when a new person would come in, but it did not gain traction or critical mass and Yammer did not make it into production <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> 9784b71c41f4e7ece97c08bdb830100f1a5e2ae7 439 437 2014-09-26T11:46:08Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In later 2013, Bloomfire, a social collaboration tool used in the building of communities integrated very well with Salesforce.com and helped the sales team perform better through the sharing of expertise. Crowdsourcing enhanced the speed of getting answers. The Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com helped improve access to knowledge resources from people within the organization who may readily have answers. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref>. Bloomfire helps in getting the information that the sales and the service teams require in order to convert more leads, close many deals, and serve the customers much effectively. <ref>Kim Carlson & Omri Goldshtrom, (2013). "Salesforce integration: bringing Bloomfire where you work" information retrieved from https://community.bloomfire.com/posts/710399-salesforce-integration-bringing-bloomfire-where-you-work/public</ref>. Salesforce application promotes interaction that drives continuous participation throughout the Bloomfire community. So, there is a balance in participation and as a result everyone contributes. Hence, Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com is as an effective enterprise social platform. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. Another unsuccessful case study is about two Australian local government organisations. These two local government organisations initially found that adding an internal social media tool creates one communications tool too many. Both the local government organisations have abandoned trials of enterprise social network Yammer as a result of their experiences <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. According to Amanda Callbutt, formerly of the IT support office at the Local Government Association (LGA) of South Australia, says the organisation trialled Yammer after being introduced to the tool by [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte], which has evangelised the software. She says, the people that were using '''Yammer''' initially were tech savvy and strong users of social media already and wanted it to succeed. However, beyond that tech-savvy group, other users were not enthusiastic <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. [http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ Wingecarribee Shire Council] had a similar story to tell. According to Andy Carnahan, Information Services Manager, looked at '''Yammer'''because their General Manager attended to a presentation where a presenter from [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte] said they use it and publically praised its capabilities <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. The IT team was asked to implement a trial which Information Services and team found simple to implement. The Information Services team introduced '''Yammer''' on people who would be interested, such as the community relations team, the General Manager and the executives. The outcome of this trail session was that the usage was very irregular. Andy Carnahan says, there would be a outbreak when a new person would come in, but it did not gain traction or critical mass and Yammer did not make it into production <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> Deloitte. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government Wingecarribee Shire Council. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ c0c7bcf245fb550b382c744e13e84e0b5fd8fd00 440 439 2014-09-26T11:51:08Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In later 2013, Bloomfire, a social collaboration tool used in the building of communities integrated very well with Salesforce.com and helped the sales team perform better through the sharing of expertise. Crowdsourcing enhanced the speed of getting answers. The Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com helped improve access to knowledge resources from people within the organization who may readily have answers. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref>. Bloomfire helps in getting the information that the sales and the service teams require in order to convert more leads, close many deals, and serve the customers much effectively. <ref>Kim Carlson & Omri Goldshtrom, (2013). "Salesforce integration: bringing Bloomfire where you work" information retrieved from https://community.bloomfire.com/posts/710399-salesforce-integration-bringing-bloomfire-where-you-work/public</ref>. Salesforce application promotes interaction that drives continuous participation throughout the Bloomfire community. So, there is a balance in participation and as a result everyone contributes. Hence, Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com is as an effective enterprise social platform. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. Another unsuccessful case study is about two Australian local government organisations. These two local government organisations initially found that adding an internal social media tool creates one communications tool too many. Both the local government organisations have abandoned trials of enterprise social network Yammer as a result of their experiences <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. According to Amanda Callbutt, formerly of the IT support office at the '''Local Government Association (LGA) of South Australia''', says the organisation trialled Yammer after being introduced to the tool by [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte], which has evangelised the software. She says, the people that were using '''Yammer''' initially were tech savvy and strong users of social media already and wanted it to succeed. However, beyond that tech-savvy group, other users were not enthusiastic <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. [http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ '''Wingecarribee Shire Council'''] had a similar story to tell. According to Andy Carnahan, Information Services Manager, looked at '''Yammer''' because their General Manager attended to a presentation where a presenter from [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte] said they use it and publicly praised its capabilities <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. The IT team was asked to implement a trial which Information Services and team found simple to implement. The Information Services team introduced '''Yammer''' on people who would be interested, such as the community relations team, the General Manager and the executives. The outcome of this trail session was that the usage was very irregular. Andy Carnahan says, there would be a outbreak when a new person would come in, but it did not gain traction or critical mass and Yammer did not make it into production <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> Deloitte. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government Wingecarribee Shire Council. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ de528a4a9d7f75adb8eebc1f022d2931ce287e15 450 440 2014-09-26T13:26:53Z Dharini 3383208 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In later 2013, Bloomfire, a social collaboration tool used in the building of communities integrated very well with Salesforce.com and helped the sales team perform better through the sharing of expertise. Crowdsourcing enhanced the speed of getting answers. The Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com helped improve access to knowledge resources from people within the organization who may readily have answers. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref>. Bloomfire helps in getting the information that the sales and the service teams require in order to convert more leads, close many deals, and serve the customers much effectively. <ref>Kim Carlson & Omri Goldshtrom, (2013). "Salesforce integration: bringing Bloomfire where you work" information retrieved from https://community.bloomfire.com/posts/710399-salesforce-integration-bringing-bloomfire-where-you-work/public</ref>. Salesforce application promotes interaction that drives continuous participation throughout the Bloomfire community. So, there is a balance in participation and as a result everyone contributes. Hence, Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com is as an effective enterprise social platform. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. The other reason why social platform fail is because there is a lack in the familiarity of these platforms and at the managerial level there is no Organization expertise. Companies make use of social media only when necessary and for the rest they keep it at a hand stretch. The reason being that, organisation have been working in a different way for a long time now and it takes time to adapt to these changes. <ref> http://www.zdnet.com/2013-predictions-for-enterprise-social-media-7000009964/ </ref> The reason that can be stated is inappropriate usage of the social media. There is always a fear that what if someone post something wrong about the company. This happens because even though it works within an organisation there can be few employees who can misuse it for a wrong reason. The information is out in public and nothing can be done. They staff can use alias names and then give away useful information that may end up as a potential threat or the bosses can take it as an advantage to dominate over the lower level staff. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. Another unsuccessful case study is about two Australian local government organisations. These two local government organisations initially found that adding an internal social media tool creates one communications tool too many. Both the local government organisations have abandoned trials of enterprise social network Yammer as a result of their experiences <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. According to Amanda Callbutt, formerly of the IT support office at the '''Local Government Association (LGA) of South Australia''', says the organisation trialled Yammer after being introduced to the tool by [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte], which has evangelised the software. She says, the people that were using '''Yammer''' initially were tech savvy and strong users of social media already and wanted it to succeed. However, beyond that tech-savvy group, other users were not enthusiastic <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. [http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ '''Wingecarribee Shire Council'''] had a similar story to tell. According to Andy Carnahan, Information Services Manager, looked at '''Yammer''' because their General Manager attended to a presentation where a presenter from [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte] said they use it and publicly praised its capabilities <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. The IT team was asked to implement a trial which Information Services and team found simple to implement. The Information Services team introduced '''Yammer''' on people who would be interested, such as the community relations team, the General Manager and the executives. The outcome of this trail session was that the usage was very irregular. Andy Carnahan says, there would be a outbreak when a new person would come in, but it did not gain traction or critical mass and Yammer did not make it into production <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> Deloitte. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government Wingecarribee Shire Council. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ 60e221110d7bd41d5b422d75b22768da0c932ed7 0 30 407 374 2014-09-26T03:03:36Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* Social Aspects */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> == References == <references/> d8cf5be257e8ad9c613d10f4d197a1e48897db07 408 407 2014-09-26T03:04:34Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 3a407c17330f7a6fd18cdf041708fa9f76226234 436 408 2014-09-26T11:16:23Z Kaushik Muthukrishnan Simili 3383089 /* Social Aspects - added social aspects introduction to the Future of all-in-one social platforms*/ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> d389c81e4213eeb607d4fc87106db07ab4c72fc0 446 436 2014-09-26T13:11:18Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 /* Social Aspects */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> f5285a4e81a104dcd8a82fc20769fbcaf4140fb6 447 446 2014-09-26T13:13:08Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 /* Social Aspects */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 3c7de3f714dbf4fae2360c988cf6a0f1da54c7ea 448 447 2014-09-26T13:20:29Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 0e78f78724c13a07c0f62429e2f259479c54347d 449 448 2014-09-26T13:21:31Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 9909c465736b37eaf7236c0dae62f00ba74c74a4 1 15 409 401 2014-09-26T03:12:29Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't want to do this without the creators permission.'' - Regards, Karen. 7e03bbcd64fdafe9a910480d0f4b7b6b37f56d51 412 409 2014-09-26T04:24:35Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't want to do this without the creators permission.'' - Regards, Karen. ''' ''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''''' 391cca8c776624810701cfdb80846927f810d5a5 413 412 2014-09-26T04:25:12Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 asked question wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't want to do this without the creators permission.'' - Regards, Karen. ''' ''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''''' 36a29e2a96f61273e5b8facc5901ec7a0518f76f 414 413 2014-09-26T04:25:16Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' f42e69415fda962eea052653ff868c59d82131f9 415 414 2014-09-26T04:26:32Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' 68e106802089eea840b6fadef163ef27499148f0 422 415 2014-09-26T05:58:28Z Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi 3383073 /* Creating New Pages and Linking them Together */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) 3fb0e7e271cc08bfce2fcb57aec9509413807346 424 422 2014-09-26T06:37:37Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ Thanking Karen for creating a page about "Future of all-in-one social platforms" wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) 96883838e927159ed3775676cfb444e0b348e376 425 424 2014-09-26T06:41:29Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Divide page */ Replying Karen wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' Hi Karen, the idea is that we need to have a detailed case study about each organization. I used my blog post for time being. Also, the rest can do the same. I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) 8a22d4983f0f4a93b0ba550479422d807d5e269f 430 425 2014-09-26T07:58:59Z Faizan Valangar Mohammed 3383091 /* Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) */ new section wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' Hi Karen, the idea is that we need to have a detailed case study about each organization. I used my blog post for time being. Also, the rest can do the same. I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) == Hi guys, Just a quick question. Since we use the word 'Enterprise Social Platform' quite often do you all think we should abbreviate it with ESP? Thanks Faizan b5dd3c8c63c51829b7b7fac5f471003d9ace3bd3 431 430 2014-09-26T08:25:14Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 /* Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) */ Reply to Faizan in regards to the use of an abbreviation for "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' Hi Karen, the idea is that we need to have a detailed case study about each organization. I used my blog post for time being. Also, the rest can do the same. I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) == Hi guys, Just a quick question. Since we use the word 'Enterprise Social Platform' quite often do you all think we should abbreviate it with ESP? Thanks Faizan It is a good suggestion '''Faizan''', but the topic is about "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms. It might be AIOESP even it looks long but is good to be used. What do you think? and we need someone to go through all the content and do the changes to the new abbreviation. Regards, Said 29138efd70465b8177490bf7fadc3107d9860922 434 431 2014-09-26T09:35:44Z Abdulaziz Abdullah A Almohsen 3383075 /* Topics to be covered */ wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. A lot of information is available from wikis and hypertext searches including micro blogging. All these are important aspects of a successful growth in technological advancements. The enhancements, however, have created a variety of divergent information forcing companies to highlight their official reference pages. In the end of it all, jobs are massively created for this online watch <ref>Brynko, B. (December 2008). Near-Time: Adding Social Networking to the Equation. Information Today. 25: (11), 34.</ref>. Moreover, some individuals sell pieces of information online and create patent rights making them such a desired brand. The power of branding is the genesis of major competitions in the commercial platforms. The integration of this software into business enterprises, therefore, is a remarkable success. The possibilities of direct link communication also improve the clientele services making it possible for feedback from the consumers. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' Hi Karen, the idea is that we need to have a detailed case study about each organization. I used my blog post for time being. Also, the rest can do the same. I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) == Hi guys, Just a quick question. Since we use the word 'Enterprise Social Platform' quite often do you all think we should abbreviate it with ESP? Thanks Faizan It is a good suggestion '''Faizan''', but the topic is about "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms. It might be AIOESP even it looks long but is good to be used. What do you think? and we need someone to go through all the content and do the changes to the new abbreviation. Regards, Said 877e6bf08e0bb3d03531cf0f4ef34a1c7196d487 435 434 2014-09-26T10:56:00Z Faizan Valangar Mohammed 3383091 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. A lot of information is available from wikis and hypertext searches including micro blogging. All these are important aspects of a successful growth in technological advancements. The enhancements, however, have created a variety of divergent information forcing companies to highlight their official reference pages. In the end of it all, jobs are massively created for this online watch <ref>Brynko, B. (December 2008). Near-Time: Adding Social Networking to the Equation. Information Today. 25: (11), 34.</ref>. Moreover, some individuals sell pieces of information online and create patent rights making them such a desired brand. The power of branding is the genesis of major competitions in the commercial platforms. The integration of this software into business enterprises, therefore, is a remarkable success. The possibilities of direct link communication also improve the clientele services making it possible for feedback from the consumers. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' Hi Karen, the idea is that we need to have a detailed case study about each organization. I used my blog post for time being. Also, the rest can do the same. I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) == Hi guys, Just a quick question. Since we use the word 'Enterprise Social Platform' quite often do you all think we should abbreviate it with ESP? Thanks Faizan It is a good suggestion '''Faizan''', but the topic is about "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms. It might be AIOESP even it looks long but is good to be used. What do you think? and we need someone to go through all the content and do the changes to the new abbreviation. Regards, Said Thanks Said, good to hear your input. Since that will cause a lot of changes in everyones parts, let us leave it as it is. Cheers Faizan 12274f42a1ba87198318c93c412f7112b1d2f465 442 435 2014-09-26T11:58:14Z Imran Faroqui 3383093 wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. A lot of information is available from wikis and hypertext searches including micro blogging. All these are important aspects of a successful growth in technological advancements. The enhancements, however, have created a variety of divergent information forcing companies to highlight their official reference pages. In the end of it all, jobs are massively created for this online watch <ref>Brynko, B. (December 2008). Near-Time: Adding Social Networking to the Equation. Information Today. 25: (11), 34.</ref>. Moreover, some individuals sell pieces of information online and create patent rights making them such a desired brand. The power of branding is the genesis of major competitions in the commercial platforms. The integration of this software into business enterprises, therefore, is a remarkable success. The possibilities of direct link communication also improve the clientele services making it possible for feedback from the consumers. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' Hi Karen, the idea is that we need to have a detailed case study about each organization. I used my blog post for time being. Also, the rest can do the same. I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page Hi guys. Just wondering if the section "Unsuccessful case studies" has enough examples. Feedback would be appreciated. Regards, Imran == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) == Hi guys, Just a quick question. Since we use the word 'Enterprise Social Platform' quite often do you all think we should abbreviate it with ESP? Thanks Faizan It is a good suggestion '''Faizan''', but the topic is about "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms. It might be AIOESP even it looks long but is good to be used. What do you think? and we need someone to go through all the content and do the changes to the new abbreviation. Regards, Said Thanks Said, good to hear your input. Since that will cause a lot of changes in everyones parts, let us leave it as it is. Cheers Faizan 0289f631cb3f3eb2c113e39f3c470b4948329301 443 442 2014-09-26T12:11:01Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 adding references tag "<references/>" wikitext text/x-wiki Dear readers, please read the introduction and brief writing about the "All in one enterprise social platform"? Thanks Waleed, Kaushik and Jodie for the valuable inputs. Waleed, it would be great to add your valuable inputs to the main page [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform All in one enterprise social platform]. Jodie, glad to see your contribution here and we are really waiting your creative work as usual. Jodie, thank you for the sections you put. They work as a guidance for contributors to follow. Bader, great addition into the case study section. Thank you. == Who are the major players? == In your opinion, who do you think is the major(s) player in achieving an enterprise social platform with all-in-one feature? In my opinion, I think Microsoft and Google are in competition to achieve this phenomena as users are now looking for a platform gives them the opportunity to do all their tasks/activities. It is important not limit the major players to the big name companies. Major players are not literally mean big names. There are other companies out there who are actually breaking ground toward creating all-in-one platform. Companies like '''Yammer''' and '''Zyncro''' are pure enterprise social platform providers that are working extensively to integrate as many features as possible on their platforms. In addition, I believe open source community is one of the major players. One of the open source companies that has been doing well in this area is '''exoplatform'''. Check the link below: [http://www.exoplatform.com Open Source Enterprise Social Network and Enterprise Portal] I agree that we should not limit the major players of all-in-one social platforms to the big brand names. as our Wiki suggests, there are many other organizations and individuals who, despite not being very popular in the arena social technology platforms, have greatly contributed to the development of the platforms. It is only for the purpose of this Wiki that we mention the universally known players as the main players in the industry. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:36, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms? == We live in the herald where locations and distances are within the scope of the our computers. More and more companies are having employees across the globe. 20 year ago, the companies spent huge amount of money every year to fly their staffs from one region to another to work on projects. Then it was practically impossible to collaborate over distance. Since more and more parts of the earth are connecting to internet, more businesses could collaborate. However, companies are buying different social technology tools from different vendors that are not compatible with one another and not with the companies' enterprise systems. Most companies are frustrating yet it is inevitable to do away with them. The idea of integrating all social technology tools on one platform seems solution to most enterprises of incompatibility of social technology tools. The embracement of "all in one" platform among businesses across the global is an indication that it would be billion of dollars revenue in the nearer future. The major players in this area understand the impact they will make and revenue they are going to generate. It is also important to add that the players in the development and utilisation of all-in-one social platforms are there for the purpose of adding value to the functions of an organisations within and across different enterprises. specifically, these platforms are useful in unlocking potential markets and influencing consumer behaviors. The integration of social technologies into one platform enables better collaboration and communication to improve knowledge into the productivity of an organisation and its personnel, and gain insight into important consumer information. This information is well-elaborated in our Wiki. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 02:44, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Do we need to put any contain on our main page? == Useful Readings == The following informative readings are pertinent to the gaining of a deeper insight into All-In-One Social Platforms: Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved September 25, 2014 DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. Retrieved September 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 IBM, (2013) retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ KPMG, (2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html Microsoft, (2014). We're Investing In Enterprise Social. Retrieved September 24, 2014 http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/940850891?pq-origsite=summon Readers are advised to delve into deeper research in order to keep abreast with the recent and emerging information on the current and related topics. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:23, 26 September 2014 (UTC) ==Topics to be covered== Hi everyone, We are doing fine with the improvement of this Wiki. At this point in time, we have covered the following main sections, which are still undergoing continuous improvement: ::#Introduction ::#History ::#Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features ::#List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms ::#Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Features ::#Case studies ::#Future of all-in-one social platforms ::#Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms ::#Criticism The subtopics are discussed in accordance with their relevance under these main sections of the Wiki. The points to be noted by all of us include the following: '''Future of all-in-one social platforms:''' - Technology -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. - Social -- it is almost done but we need to have more content by giving examples. A lot of information is available from wikis and hypertext searches including micro blogging. All these are important aspects of a successful growth in technological advancements. The enhancements, however, have created a variety of divergent information forcing companies to highlight their official reference pages. In the end of it all, jobs are massively created for this online watch <ref>Brynko, B. (December 2008). Near-Time: Adding Social Networking to the Equation. Information Today. 25: (11), 34.</ref>. Moreover, some individuals sell pieces of information online and create patent rights making them such a desired brand. The power of branding is the genesis of major competitions in the commercial platforms. The integration of this software into business enterprises, therefore, is a remarkable success. The possibilities of direct link communication also improve the clientele services making it possible for feedback from the consumers. Also, we need to have more data for the "'Unsuccessful cases'" Great job everyone! --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Divide page == As mentioned by out lecturer, I think it might be better to describe some successful or unsuccessful case in new pages other than working on one page. So the reader could click the title of the case and jump into a new page that will describe the case in details. What do you think? '''Yes, I agree with you but we need to have an introduction to that page so visitors know what they are going to read there. Regards, Said ''' ''For time being we have just created a one page contains all the case studies and waiting the contributors to feed it with their case studies example in different pages. regards, Said'' I posted about Eni as a successful case study in terms of implementing enterprise social platforms. Regards, Said ''Hi Said. But don't you think if we have one page only for Eni, then each case study would have to have its own page and that doesn't seem necessary. Regards, Karen.'' Hi Karen, the idea is that we need to have a detailed case study about each organization. I used my blog post for time being. Also, the rest can do the same. I also agree that it is crucial to create new pages for our Wiki to make it more professional and presentable. The pages need to be interconnected and there should be a way of linking back to previous pages, especially the main page of your Wiki. It is for this reason that I created a new page for the "Future of all-in-one social platforms" and gave a link to take readers back to the main page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:07, 26 September 2014 (UTC) I have also added links to the Case Studies page so that readers can easily get back to our main page once they are done reading about the successful and unsuccessful cases of all-in-one social platforms. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 01:26, 26 September 2014 (UTC) Thanks Abdulrahman, we already applied for the case studies. Regards, Said. ''I noticed 6. Examples of how enterprise networks have improved company communication, with the description of 2 ENS, what is the point of that? Then we should cover all the others, and there would not be a point to the List. I created a Tibbr, Chatter and Radian6 pages because they don't exist on Wikipedia. I think the info there should be moved there or deleted, but I don't '''Karen, I agree with you and I noticed some duplications in content. For example some topics are repeated with different title. If you created the page then please go ahead move that content to your page but make sure you make an intro to the page as I did with the "Case Studies" Regards, Said''' '''Karen, could you please give us the link to that page so we can put some content from our side?''' Thanks Karen for creating that page. I think you need to create a link on the main page http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page Hi guys. Just wondering if the section "Unsuccessful case studies" has enough examples. Feedback would be appreciated. Regards, Imran == Creating New Pages and Linking them Together == I would like to appreciate everyone's dedication and hard work towards the success of this blog. At the same time, I believe we can make our Wiki even more user-friendly than it already is by moving some of the content to new pages. This will shorten the Wiki and make it easier and interesting for readers to navigate through various pages as they gain new knowledge about all-in-one social platforms from each page. --[[User:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi]] ([[User talk:Abdulrahman Taher H Alhashimi|talk]]) 05:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC) == Abbreviation for Enterprise Social Platform (ESP) == Hi guys, Just a quick question. Since we use the word 'Enterprise Social Platform' quite often do you all think we should abbreviate it with ESP? Thanks Faizan It is a good suggestion '''Faizan''', but the topic is about "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms. It might be AIOESP even it looks long but is good to be used. What do you think? and we need someone to go through all the content and do the changes to the new abbreviation. Regards, Said Thanks Said, good to hear your input. Since that will cause a lot of changes in everyones parts, let us leave it as it is. Cheers Faizan <references/> 4b5569be5d975432823faebddd5908c545a7f04f 1 8 410 288 2014-09-26T03:44:40Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 /* What are Social Platforms? */ wikitext text/x-wiki What should we have on this main page? My suggestion would be links to major sections/chapters of information about the topic. == "All-in-one" enterprise social platform== '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platform]''' The page is created and it is ready for your inputs to enrich its content at: http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform I added another heading which going to talk about the major players in this market like Microsoft and Google. What do you think other topics could be there? Thanks, Said -------- Hello Said, Thanks for creating the wiki page for our class. Our class contribution will start from now onwards. Regards Kaushik == What are Social Platforms? == '''* [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/User_talk:Shilpak_Khanke What are Social Platforms?]''' == Who are the major players in enterprise social platforms? == '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Who are the major players?]''' == What are the features of these platforms?== == Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?== '''*[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform Why are they playing in this space? What are the benefits of such "all-in-one" platforms?]''' == General Discussion == '''[[Page dividing suggestions]]''' c5f886a044a02c7d66e4b9a58525082df2b4b273 1 34 427 2014-09-26T06:48:46Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 Created page with "Karen, you need to write the link of this page in the main page of INN346 at http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page Regards, Said" wikitext text/x-wiki Karen, you need to write the link of this page in the main page of INN346 at http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page Regards, Said 24bdabeec77f30f13127843fd74dd3bedfdb7867 2 35 432 2014-09-26T08:30:03Z Said Al-Ghanami 3383069 create user page wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 0 5 451 342 2014-09-26T13:27:59Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platform */ wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' =="All-in-one" enterprise social platform== This wiki contains useful information about "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms", including its definition, features, benefits, challenges, major players/stakeholders, some successful and failed cases and its future. '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms]''' '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms The case studies of enterprise social platforms]''' page is created. The page gives a brief of successful and unsuccessful implementations of enterprise social platforms in different organisations around the World. Please [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms click here] to visit the page. To read more about the social, technology and business aspects on the future of Enterprise Social Platforms, please go to the page '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Future_of_all-in-one_social_platforms Future of All-in-one Social Platforms].''' Pages have been created for 3 of the most important All-in-one social platforms used by companies, that do not have a Wikipedia page. *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Tibbr Tibbr] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Chatter Salesforce Chatter] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Radian6_Buddy_Media_Social_Studio Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 7b66b159f8887e3499a4792af8673556a33ddb58 452 451 2014-09-26T13:32:22Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platform */ wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' =="All-in-one" enterprise social platform== This wiki contains useful information about "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms", including its definition, features, benefits, challenges, major players/stakeholders, some successful and failed cases and its future. '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms]''' '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms The case studies of enterprise social platforms]''' page is created. The page gives a brief of successful and unsuccessful implementations of enterprise social platforms in different organisations around the World. Please [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms click here] to visit the page. To read more about the social, technology and business aspects on the future of Enterprise Social Platforms, please go to the page '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Future_of_all-in-one_social_platforms Future of All-in-one Social Platforms].''' Pages have been created for 3 of the most important All-in-one social platforms used by companies, that do not have a Wikipedia page. *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Tibbr Tibbr] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Chatter Salesforce Chatter] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Radian6_Buddy_Media_Social_Studio Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] For more All-in-one social platforms refer to the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform#List_of_all-in-one_enterprise_social_platforms List of all-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms] ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. 19f2de86393704a487705364ac177c479e22b8b6 0 14 453 445 2014-09-26T13:36:07Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 75. Himanshu Sareen, (2014). Enterprise Social Networks may one day replace email. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/enterprise-social-networks-may-one-day-replace-email/ 180b49bc01001852884d2a367b61616b0c1eaf16 455 453 2014-09-26T13:44:22Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* Technical features */ add 4 features wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. Overall, most of all-in-one enterprise social platforms provide technical features below: *'''Integration with other social platforms'''<ref>Schneider, P. 10 Elements of Leading B2B Social Business Software – Part 2 [Internet]. Socious, Inc.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://info.socious.com/bid/48819/10-Elements-of-Leading-B2B-Social-Business-Software-Part-2</ref> *'''Open API''' *'''Mobile ready''' *'''Platform variety'''<ref>Caldwell, T. Providing context for information is crucial [Internet]. Future Publishing Ltd.; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/enterprise-social-choosing-key-features-1147755/2#articleContent</ref> === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>user registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>Facebook features like updateable profile, adding friends, activity streams and reviews</li> <li>sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>advertising</li> <li>brand pages</li> <li>payment integration</li> <li>chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 75. Himanshu Sareen, (2014). Enterprise Social Networks may one day replace email. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/enterprise-social-networks-may-one-day-replace-email/ 4679ca4d8c9b2ef06b1d8396082c83608f2ff3fb 463 455 2014-09-26T13:56:59Z Yi-Shan Chen 3383080 /* Social features */ add some features wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. Overall, most of all-in-one enterprise social platforms provide technical features below: *'''Integration with other social platforms'''<ref>Schneider, P. 10 Elements of Leading B2B Social Business Software – Part 2 [Internet]. Socious, Inc.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://info.socious.com/bid/48819/10-Elements-of-Leading-B2B-Social-Business-Software-Part-2</ref> *'''Open API''' *'''Mobile ready''' *'''Platform variety'''<ref>Caldwell, T. Providing context for information is crucial [Internet]. Future Publishing Ltd.; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/enterprise-social-choosing-key-features-1147755/2#articleContent</ref> === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>Able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>User registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>User profiles <li>Friendship modules <li>Activity streams <li>Sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>Importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>Advertising</li> <li>Brand pages</li> <li>Payment integration</li> <li>Chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 75. Himanshu Sareen, (2014). Enterprise Social Networks may one day replace email. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/enterprise-social-networks-may-one-day-replace-email/ 5f3eaca98ebc33bdb13f2c6ae6146fec54826547 470 463 2014-09-26T14:00:55Z Robert Jauwhannes 3383098 /* Benefits and Uses of All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. The issue that big companies faced is not losing profit or customer but rather simple thing such as communication. Communication is important because it carries a valuable information from everywhere within the organisation. And the answer to this issues is Enterprise Social Platform. It enable people from top level to communicate easier and faster to people around the organisation.Another objectives are to solve Primal, Visionary and Operational Objectives. 1. Primal Objectives replacement of a current intranet to a more advanced system which enable employees and management to effectively work together. 2. Visionary Objectives Goals that company aims to achieve in some time in the future because it allow point of view from the employee. 3. Operational Objectives Tasks that involve day to day transaction between employees and management and linked to productivity and accountability. This objectives are the easiest objectives to translate into ongoing ROI. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. Overall, most of all-in-one enterprise social platforms provide technical features below: *'''Integration with other social platforms'''<ref>Schneider, P. 10 Elements of Leading B2B Social Business Software – Part 2 [Internet]. Socious, Inc.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://info.socious.com/bid/48819/10-Elements-of-Leading-B2B-Social-Business-Software-Part-2</ref> *'''Open API''' *'''Mobile ready''' *'''Platform variety'''<ref>Caldwell, T. Providing context for information is crucial [Internet]. Future Publishing Ltd.; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/enterprise-social-choosing-key-features-1147755/2#articleContent</ref> === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>Able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>User registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>User profiles <li>Friendship modules <li>Activity streams <li>Sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>Importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>Advertising</li> <li>Brand pages</li> <li>Payment integration</li> <li>Chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 75. Himanshu Sareen, (2014). Enterprise Social Networks may one day replace email. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/enterprise-social-networks-may-one-day-replace-email/ 578a8ed285f52b6e8d402ec855e5b7a47c39671f 472 470 2014-09-26T14:03:32Z Robert Jauwhannes 3383098 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. The issue that big companies faced is not losing profit or customer but rather simple thing such as communication. Communication is important because it carries a valuable information from everywhere within the organisation. And the answer to this issues is Enterprise Social Platform. It enable people from top level to communicate easier and faster to people around the organisation.Another objectives are to solve Primal, Visionary and Operational Objectives. 1. Primal Objectives replacement of a current intranet to a more advanced system which enable employees and management to effectively work together. 2. Visionary Objectives Goals that company aims to achieve in some time in the future because it allow point of view from the employee. 3. Operational Objectives Tasks that involve day to day transaction between employees and management and linked to productivity and accountability. This objectives are the easiest objectives to translate into ongoing ROI. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. Overall, most of all-in-one enterprise social platforms provide technical features below: *'''Integration with other social platforms'''<ref>Schneider, P. 10 Elements of Leading B2B Social Business Software – Part 2 [Internet]. Socious, Inc.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://info.socious.com/bid/48819/10-Elements-of-Leading-B2B-Social-Business-Software-Part-2</ref> *'''Open API''' *'''Mobile ready''' *'''Platform variety'''<ref>Caldwell, T. Providing context for information is crucial [Internet]. Future Publishing Ltd.; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/enterprise-social-choosing-key-features-1147755/2#articleContent</ref> === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>Able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>User registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>User profiles <li>Friendship modules <li>Activity streams <li>Sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>Importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>Advertising</li> <li>Brand pages</li> <li>Payment integration</li> <li>Chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 75. Himanshu Sareen, (2014). Enterprise Social Networks may one day replace email. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/enterprise-social-networks-may-one-day-replace-email/ 76.TechRepublic. (2013). How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 14f2a07f8e6f1daa3261b254becd77bd9c8f4b76 476 472 2014-09-26T23:47:31Z Omar Akintunde Elias 3383092 /* Lack of adoption */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. The issue that big companies faced is not losing profit or customer but rather simple thing such as communication. Communication is important because it carries a valuable information from everywhere within the organisation. And the answer to this issues is Enterprise Social Platform. It enable people from top level to communicate easier and faster to people around the organisation.Another objectives are to solve Primal, Visionary and Operational Objectives. 1. Primal Objectives replacement of a current intranet to a more advanced system which enable employees and management to effectively work together. 2. Visionary Objectives Goals that company aims to achieve in some time in the future because it allow point of view from the employee. 3. Operational Objectives Tasks that involve day to day transaction between employees and management and linked to productivity and accountability. This objectives are the easiest objectives to translate into ongoing ROI. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. Overall, most of all-in-one enterprise social platforms provide technical features below: *'''Integration with other social platforms'''<ref>Schneider, P. 10 Elements of Leading B2B Social Business Software – Part 2 [Internet]. Socious, Inc.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://info.socious.com/bid/48819/10-Elements-of-Leading-B2B-Social-Business-Software-Part-2</ref> *'''Open API''' *'''Mobile ready''' *'''Platform variety'''<ref>Caldwell, T. Providing context for information is crucial [Internet]. Future Publishing Ltd.; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/enterprise-social-choosing-key-features-1147755/2#articleContent</ref> === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>Able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>User registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>User profiles <li>Friendship modules <li>Activity streams <li>Sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>Importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>Advertising</li> <li>Brand pages</li> <li>Payment integration</li> <li>Chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. Challenges The Academia<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> has identified some of the challenges encountered with the adoption of Enterprise Social Platform in large organisations. They have categorized these challenges into internal and external challenges. Based on their findings, the internal challenges identified are resources, ownership, authorization, attitudes and economic issues, while the external factors are company reputation, legal issues and public/private network identity. Based on these findings, the Academia<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> has developed a proposal on how organisations can prepare strategies and guidelines for social enterprise adoption and use. Internal Challenges The internal challenges have been categorized into five according to Academia<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref>. The following is a brief discussion on their findings for each category. Resource Based on Academia’s<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> findings, large organisations have failed to provide human resources directly assigned specifically to work on building and coordinating their social enterprise platform asset. Social enterprise adoption in organisations has been done on an ad-hoc basis, whereby employees take out time at work to coordinate the use of the platform. The future of enterprise social platform in large organisations has been tied to resource availability whereby people have to be assigned to and responsible for the coordination and production of content. Ownership Academia’s<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> findings point to the fact that most organisations do not have a clearly defined owner for their enterprise social activities. No individual or department has clearly defined responsibility for the enterprise social platform. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 75. Himanshu Sareen, (2014). Enterprise Social Networks may one day replace email. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/enterprise-social-networks-may-one-day-replace-email/ 76.TechRepublic. (2013). How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 78ea52f8b05eb8ffe463c97e09683dd309a2862d 478 476 2014-09-26T23:50:46Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[All-in-one enterprise social platform]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki == Introduction == All-in-one enterprise social platforms are implementations of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise 2.0] technology that allow organizations to expand their traditional intranets and encompass such activities as content authoring/publishing, media streaming and other social or group activities <ref>Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>.They use collaborative tools and metrics to increase customer lifetime value, lower marketing expenses, improve lead generation, enhance clients' engagement, identify prospects and maximize idea dissemination <ref>Thomas, D. B. & Barlow, M. (2011). The executive's guide to enterprise social media strategy: How social networks are radically transforming your business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_2.0 Enterprise_2.0] is an initiative focusing on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in organisations by the process of collaboration and crowd-sourcing techniques aiming towards the betterment of an organization. Ramirez-Medina defined Enterprise 2.0 as “the application of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise environment, in order to allow employees to collaborate, share ideas, communicate and generate content” <ref>A. McAfee (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press. </ref>. Enterprise 2.0 is successfully used by many different organisations internally in terms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management knowledge management] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration collaboration] and externally in terms of approaching customers through communities that are built by those organisations<ref>J.A. Ramirez-Medina, "Enterprise 2.0 Readiness Index." Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 2677-2684, 2009.</ref>. So, based on these definitions, Enterprise 2.0 embraces Information, communication, networking, and collaboration as four elements in one platform as all-in-on platform<ref>M. Platt (n.d.). Web 2.0 in the Enterprise. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735306.aspx</ref>. In addition, the successful integration of enterprise 2.0 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_software enterprise applications] helps generate a real all-in-one platform. For example, enterprise 2.0 applications get their information from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle], Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] and other enterprise systems <ref>Nam Doan-Huy, YiHong Xu, Narshimha Rao Kondapaka, and M. W. (n.d.). Building Enterprise 2.0 Applications. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/enterprise2/building-e20-applications-101935.html</ref>. Therefore, it is a must to have the four enterprise 2.0 elements and a successful integration with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning ERP systems] and other social media networks such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog blogs] and other social media channels to have a real all-in-one social platform otherwise it cannot be called enterprise 2.0. The term “all-in-one” signifies that such platforms not only employ a host of media applications such as blogs, images, audio/video, podcasts and other information feeds, but able to encompass the entire value chain from employees to customers to suppliers. The progressive and prospective organizations all over the world are increasingly on the move to adopt a standard model of social networking to enhance their collaboration internally, improve their workflow and management practices. In order to materialize this, organizations can implement enterprise social business systems that support effective communication utilizing similar features present in social media platforms like twitter and facebook. Including: news feeds, the special and distinct property of finding and following different people, passing comments and sharing pictures and photos. Within the organization, the aspect of sharing covers an important aspects of document-sharing, reports, tasks and application activities. Further, vendors encourage social capabilities into different types of enterprise applications.<ref>Debra Donston-Miller, (2012). "Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide." 'Information Week's article'. Information retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/enterprise/enterprise-social-networks-must-have-features-guide/d/d-id/1105867?</ref> Enterprise social software refers to a collection of tools that are used in making and integrating social networked systems in business enterprises and commercial platforms. The software includes successful implementation following the introduction of systems such as internet applications <ref>Blakeley, A. L. (May 20, 2005). Understanding the Platform Requirements of Emerging Enterprise Solutions. Intel Journal. 9: 7. Retrieved from http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09issue02/art07_platform_req/p01_abstract.htm</ref>. An all-in-one enterprise social platform integrates the technological approaches into business and commercial plan implementations. These systems allow their users to search and find various contents.For example: to write and add blogs of their own, to create personal tags to items and to extend their recommendations for users<ref> Hinchcliffe, D. (October 22, 2007). "The state of Enterprise 2.0", ZDNET.com, London</ref>. This ultimately succeeds, in terms of providing a subscription to the users to various contents via social platforms. Furthermore, Enterprise 2.0 is made up of networked and social modifications in order to incorporate intranets and classic software platform in use by large companies for communication organization. Unlike traditional enterprise software that dictated the structure before use, enterprise 2.0 is based on the use before providing structure. According to <ref> Frappaolo C. & Keldsen D. (2008). What is Web 2.0?” Association for Information and Image Management.Retrieved 2009-01-20.</ref>Frappaolo and Keldsen (2008), Enterprise social platforms are web-based technology systems that provide agile and rapid collaboration, emergency and integration capabilities, and information sharing in an enterprise. Every feature of the Enterprise social platform stands for a specific functionality. <ref> Dion, H. (2007, October). The State of Enterprise 2.0. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-state-of-enterprise-2-0/143</ref>Hinchcliffe (2007) describes some of the functions as: tree form function with no ownership barriers, network-oriented function, which requires in all cases web-addressable content, social function, which is meant to stressing transparency, diversity and openness. One of the well known tool adapted by these platforms is blogging, which lets individuals and institutions share their stories, experiences and knowledge. Secondly, it allows organizations to plan their systems through social bookmarking and knowledge tagging. In addition to that, it enables the storing, transfer and sharing of files and documents <ref>Tebbutt, D. (November 2007). The congregation is more powerful than its platform. Information World Review. 240, 13-13. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170785211.html</ref>. This is in context with the cloud computing that has successfully transferred data virtually, safely and in quicker terms than the courier services would never dream to achieve, not even with the aid of rocket science as the transportation mode <ref>Theresa, R. (July/August 2008). "Enterprise Search: Seek and Ye Might Find", Computers in Libraries. 28: (7), 22.</ref>. Moreover, communication has been enhanced greatly with instant messaging taking a mature lead in the communication aspect. This enables online users from different regions to effectively and precisely communicate. The data in social platforms has assisted in product analysis and market prediction. With the availability of information on the likes and dislikes of divergent populations from across the continent, product suppliers are in a good position to study and formulate their supply chains effectively. ==History== Before the emergence of a number of all-in-one enterprise social media platforms, most companies have followed three main paths to fulfill the needs of social functionalities, <ref> (Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(1), 1-19. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12029 </ref> which are: public social websites such as Facebook and Twitter; private enterprise software that can be installed on a local server or hosted server; and in-house proprietary prototypes, which are developed by software companies for testing. Each method will be discussed as followed. Public social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ are still important platforms for enterprises to communicate externally with customers, launch marketing campaigns or provide after-sale services nowadays. Many employees admitted that they used public social media for work to communicate with colleagues, blog and micro-blog a few years ago. However, there are several issues to work with public social websites. Information leakage is the initial problem, as most of information on public sites are widely spread and can be accessed easily by anyone. The worse thing is that public social websites may disturb the relationship between superior and subordinate. Problems often occur when a manager and an employee become friends. Moreover, public social media is likely to distract employees from work, which leads to a low working efficiency. As a result, most enterprises avoid to relying on public social media platforms for business purpose. Compared with public social websites, private enterprise system is considered to be much safer. A private system is commonly set up on a local server, and it can only be accessed via intranet in an enterprise. A frontend software is installed on every employee’s PC. One renowned example of an internal enterprise system is Twiki. Twiki is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enabled distributed teams to work together seamlessly. <ref>Twiki. (2014). Retrieved from: http://twiki.org/ </ref> Despite its high security level, private systems are limited of its functionality. Some features of all-in-one social media such as online chatting and tweeting are almost impossible to be achieved on these platforms due to an outdated infrastructure. In-house developed prototypes are the third approach to a collaboration platform before all-in-one social platforms occur. These proprietary prototypes are actually the predecessors of current enterprise social media. They were developed by IT companies originally designed to increase the productivity and working efficiency throughout internal enterprises. After a long period of time of implementation and improvements, the prototypes are likely to grow mature to be a commercial product. These research prototypes may only have a short lifespan, depending on its practical value in business. == Major Players in Enterprise social platforms and their features == [https://www.google.com Google], [https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/default.aspx Microsoft], [https://www.facebook.com/ Facebook] and even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] are aiming to approach an all-in-one enterprise social platform where all we need is available in one platform. It is clear that Enterprise 2.0 is an important aspect of the strategy of major players going forward. Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 with a total amount of USD $1.2 billion as an extension to its social offering to strengthen its position in the market<ref>M. LIEDTKE (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] has it is own operating systems for desktop and mobiles, office applications which work online and offline, business applications, devices like the Surface which launched recently as a competitor to iPad from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] as a new family member. Microsoft as a giant in technology applications for both B2C and B2B is able to approach the "all-in-one" enterprise social platform. For example, the following video gives a look to how [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] describe the enterprise social concept from its point of view: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRD2ueUyTr0 Enterprise Social: Work like a network]. In addition, Microsoft has its own website designated to the development of "[http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/enterprise-social/default.aspx#fbid=uzq7JFhh1YU Enterprise Social]" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] is another major player in this market with many social services offered starting from the search engine, maps, email, google glass, video conferencing, operating system for mobiles and tablets, and other business suits. Google embraced all its featured offerings via Google+ as social platform where it can be used for individual works or enterprise works<ref>Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities - TechRepublic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/embrace-enterprise-social-networking-with-google-communities</ref>. The following video link gives an idea about "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJUL92y9wo Google Apps - Work in the Future]". Furthermore, there are many more players in this market, including traditional leaders such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft], as well as standalone developers such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive Software] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], which is also used by other companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell Shell] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven 7-Eleven]. [http://www.exoplatform.com/company/en/company/our-customers Allianz and HSBC] both use an opensource product, [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform]. Tibbr, developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software Tibco], is used by Macy’s; while Jive is used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile T-Mobile] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC] among others <ref>Fee, J. (2013). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Mashable. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] is used by more than 200,000 companies all over the world. It was originally created for the purpose of communication internally for a genealogy website ‘Geni’ and later on purchased by Microsoft and incorporated it into the Microsoft office division. It is one of the best private social networks which gets the people united and can create not just conversation but also the content and business data in one place. Many organisations have chosen Yammer only for a fact that, they can work collaboratively and connect with each other anytime and everywhere. In September 2010, yammer was being used by 3 million people worldwide or more and 80,000 companies worldwide<ref> https://about.yammer.com/product/platform/ </ref>. During the same period yammer launched a new version of their software which became popular as “Facebook for business [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] is competing to have its market share from this phenomena with its enterprise social product called Connections. Connections features a social stream, profiles, communities, mail, bookmarks, file-sharing and communities in addition to wiki pages, blogs and easy integration feature with Microsoft Products such SharePoint<ref>Jess Fee (n.d.). 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks</ref>. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM] also uses Connections as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service SAAS] (software as a service) system that can be accessed from computers as well as smartphones<ref> IBM. (2013). IBM SaaS Terms of Use. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/pdf/8218-07/$file/Z125-8218-07_03-2013_en_US.pdf</ref>. Therefore, the following system led to enhanced social capital benefits like enhanced access to new expertise and people, which intern created the perception of belonging to a larger community among the employees of IBM <ref>Leonardi, P. M., HuysmanM.and Steinfield C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1–19.</ref>. Various companies have come up to provide enterprise social platform services to business corporations. Companies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubSpot HubSpot] provides marketing networking software run by a business organization to network with other business enterprises, through which the business can access particular information from partners, case studies and pricing of various commodities <ref>Eileen, B. (2010). Working the Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business, Chippenham: British Informatics Society Limited.</ref>. On top of, it provides a link to blogging sites on which the user can share information related to the changes in the market. Another tool [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite], provides marketing network software for managing social media for an organisation. Hootsuite management tool is used for managing social network, scheduling messages, engaging audience and measuring ROI right from the organisation. This tool is different for pro and enterprise level. Pro version is perfectly for small and medium business, agencies, and busy community managers who need to manage, engage, and measure with a scalable, intuitive platform <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social media platform for your business - Hootsuite Pro. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/pro [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014].</ref>. While Enterprise version of the tool is for large corporations and government entities that require social implementation with regulatory compliance across all facets of the organization <ref> Hootsuite.com, (2014). The social relationship platform for your enterprise - Hootsuite Enterprise. [online] Available at: https://hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]</ref>. There’s also a free version of Hootsuite with limited features, great for personal use. Hootsuite all-in-one platform provides engagement, Listening, analytics, collaboration and security all in one place. == List of all-in-one enterprise social platforms == The most used enterprise social platforms by many organizations are outlined in the table below: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Name ! Description ! Web address |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfire Bloomfire] | Founded in 2010 by Josh Little.<ref>Allred, C. (2012). Little’s Bloomfire ablaze in its industry. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/lehi/little-s-bloomfire-ablaze-in-its-industry/article_a13ed6d0-c486-52f8-b9dd-a0caf992507b.html</ref>It aims to distribute news and knowledge in a quick manner to the right people. | [https://bloomfire.com/ bloomfire.com] |- | [[Chatter]] | Created by Salesforce, built on the Salesforce1 Platform. | [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter salesforce.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections (software)] | Created by IBM in 2007. | [http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confluence_%28software%29 Confluence] | An organizational platform was launched by Atlassian in 2003 for collaboration and content sharing. | [https://www.atlassian.com atlassian.com] |- | [[Convo]] | Created by Scrybe in 2012. Formerly named Convofy. | [https://www.convo.com convo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcom_Technology elcomCMS] | elcomCMS is content management system found in Australia in 1996 with the aim of integrating customized software and solutions into any organization. | [http://www.elcomcms.com elcomcms.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software) Elgg] | An open source social networking platform, was launched in 2004. It enables organizations to run their own customized, social network site. | [http://elgg.org/ elgg.org] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXo_Platform eXo] | Open source software created in 2002, distributed by eXo inc. | [http://www.exoplatform.com exoplatform.com] |- | [[Hexigo]] | A cloud-based decision management platform enables enterprise to come to decisions though file sharing and discussion in one place. | [http://hexigo.com/ hexigo.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections IBM Connections] | An Enterprise 2.0 social platform enables organizations integrate third party applications into Connections and engage right people into business processes. | [http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn ibm.com/software/products/en/conn] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website) Ning] | A community-based social network enables anyone to build own sites integrated with features of most social platforms. <ref>Jones, P. (2005). Platform Wars. Retrieved from http://platformwars.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/ning.html</ref> | [http://www.ning.com ning.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_%28software%29 Jive (software)] | Created by Jive Software. Formerly named Clearspace, then Jive SBS, then Jive Engage. | [http://www.jivesoftware.com jivesoftware.com] |- | [[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] |Created by Salesforce.com. A social studio with a new social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics platform |[http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com salesforcemarketingcloud.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint] | A Web-based collaboration and document management platform which integrates all Microsoft Office programs for users easily shared on an intranet or the web. | [http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/] |- | [[SocialCast]] | Bought by VMware in 2011. | [http://www.socialcast.com socialcast.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext Socialtext (software)] | A wiki-centric software platform. | [http://www.socialtext.com socialtext.com] |- | [[Tibbr]] | Created by TIBCO Software. | [http://www.tibbr.com tibbr.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] | Bought by Microsoft in 2012. | [https://www.yammer.com yammer.com] |- | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra Zimbra] | Bought by Telligent (an enterprise social software company) in 2013. | [http://www.zimbra.com zimbra.com] |- | [[Zyncro]] | Popular in Europe and Latin America <ref>Zyncro, the leading Enterprise Social Network in Southern Europe and Latin America, gathers momentum in France and Germany [Internet]. Digital Journal; 2012 [cited 2014 Sep 18]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/808597</ref>. | [http://www.zyncro.com zyncro.com] |- | [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite] | Tool to connect with more than 35 popular social networks<ref> https://hootsuite.com/ </ref> | [https://hootsuite.com/ hootsuite.com] |- |[http://www.oktopost.com/ Oktopost] | A social media management software designed to publish social messages, converse with prospects and generate leads <ref> |http://www.oktopost.com/</ref> |[http://www.oktopost.com/ oktopost.com] |} == Benefits and Uses of ''All-in-one'' Enterprise Social Platforms == There are a number of benefits that enterprise social platforms have. Inside communication identifies 12 Case Benefits of Enterprise Social Platforms [10]: 1. They create alignment by connecting employees to their organization 2. Foster collaboration by increasing projects engagement and collaboration 3. Improve productivity by reducing time spent reading and responding to emails 4. Drive innovation by sharing ideas/crowdsourcing 5. Serve customers by satisfying their needs 6. Reduce expenses by reducing operation cost 7. Disseminate Knowledge by knowledge management 8. Engage employees by satisfying them 9. Enhance communication by improving internal communication 10.Refresh culture by increasing employee connectedness 11.Enable flexibility by simplifying the process of communication 12.Increase agility by keeping employees inside the event. However, Microsoft shortcuts these benefits into four benefits of enterprise social [11]: 1. Improve employee engagement 2. Build more productive teams 3. Create a connected organisation 4. Win and build customer loyalty. By having all-in-one enterprise platform the benefits will go beyond these mentioned above benefits. For example, it can be imagined that employees are connected to their colleagues using the same platform that connects them to their personal friends. Google+ already started this as it is reaching 100% of all-in-one enterprise social platform. Many business organizations have turned to enterprise social platforms to build business connections and to enhance interactions with clients and employees. In 2011, a study conducted in the US showed that many companies have embraced the new technology due to the increased use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites social networking sites]. Experts term this as an alternative source for adding value to the existing communication channels <ref>Fidelman, M. (2014). The Rise of Enterprise Social Networks. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy</ref>. A different study conducted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Microsoft] showed that there has been an increase in use of enterprise social platforms from 2011 with social networking sites and enterprise platforms recording financial growth over the years. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Group Westfield Group], a housing enterprise has applied different applications in running their operations, which has boosted teamwork within the company and increased customer satisfaction. The company has collaborated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] to provide effective applications that have targeted communication enhancement in internal and external operations of the company <ref>Graubner-Müller, A. (2011). Web Mining in Social Media: Use Cases, Business Value, and Algorithmic approaches for Corporate Intelligence. Norderstedt: Verlag</ref>. In addition, there are many organizational benefits to these all-in-one platforms and great demand from companies to install them, bringing a number of players into this space. They bring together multiple collaboration tools and data analytics, allowing greater knowledge discovery, quicker knowledge dissemination and better workflow <ref>Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology: A Unified View on Business Processes, Workflows and Enterprise Applications. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.</ref>. Recently, there have been few companies such as Jive software and IBM that have got into a research just too see how these social networking tools can impact enterprise networks. Companies have started to use more of social networking and they have started creating their own internal networking sites. For example IBM has initiated the ‘Beehive research project’; it is completely based on their Lotus Connections product and Atos, has its own BlueKiwi product across all 76,000 employees so that they can attain a zero ambition email by the end of 2014. The new concept that many companies have started is that is the use of social networking websites along with the tools. By doing this they ensure the employees use website such as Facebook and twitter or even create a blog to interact with their users or assist with work relating issues <ref> http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf </ref> . Not only has it become company’s new marketing strategy but it has also gained the customers trust. The issue that big companies faced is not losing profit or customer but rather simple thing such as communication. Communication is important because it carries a valuable information from everywhere within the organisation. And the answer to this issues is Enterprise Social Platform. It enable people from top level to communicate easier and faster to people around the organisation.Another objectives are to solve Primal, Visionary and Operational Objectives. 1. Primal Objectives replacement of a current intranet to a more advanced system which enable employees and management to effectively work together. 2. Visionary Objectives Goals that company aims to achieve in some time in the future because it allow point of view from the employee. 3. Operational Objectives Tasks that involve day to day transaction between employees and management and linked to productivity and accountability. This objectives are the easiest objectives to translate into ongoing ROI. As interpreted by the analysts, companies have started to recognize the potential benefits that Enterprise social media technology (a form of all-in-one enterprise social platform) can impart, especially with respect to collaboration among departments and cross-departments. It extends beyond sharing of best practices in companies to enable employees to immediately identify coworkers with ease and expertise, exchange knowledge with one another, and contribute collectively and efficiently when on projects. It follows and mixes up critical features such as employee profiles, activity streams, forums, discussions, wikis, microblogging and work towards a common goal for helping employees to collaborate and crowdsource. The primary goal of all-in-one enterprise social platforms is to connect better the members of a company or organization and promote knowledge-sharing activities among different departments and employees in an organization <ref>Beth Stackpole, (2014). "Business case for enterprise social networks: Better collaboration" information retrieved from: http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Business-case-for-enterprise-social-networks-Better-collaboration</ref> With collaboration of different all-in-one social media tools could create more impact in the future. [http://www.hubspot.com/ HubSpot]and [https://hootsuite.com/ Hootsuite]teamed up to make the world of marketing an even better place <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. The team HS & HS launching a new product integration, a record-breaking webinar, multiple eBooks, and more, all centred around a single idea: we should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally "close the loop" on their social media marketing efforts <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx [Accessed 25 Sep. 2014]. </ref>. This all-in-one social media tools integration will make it easier for the customers to understand social media. Via a new beta app, users of both products can monitor their leads' tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up with their leads with a tweet <ref>Blog.hubspot.com, (2014). HootSuite Partners With HubSpot to Offer Social Media Lead Nurturing #ClosedLoopSocial. [online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33169/HootSuite-Partners-With-HubSpot-to-Offer-Social-Media-Lead-Nurturing-ClosedLoopSocial.aspx . </ref>. Users could manage their best performing keywords in HubSpot and follow their leads for improvement. The collaboration could benefit several other users to communicate and promote their product in fast and more efficient way. == Features == === Technical features === All-in-one platforms can allow enterprises to provide personalised profiles, user activity tracking, collaborative workspaces, wikis and forums. [http://www.exoplatform.com eXo Platform] provides team and individual calendars, user and team tasks, and the ability to design applications which can work with the standard offering. In addition to the cosmetic features, the platform can be integrated with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol LDAP] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory Active Directory], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on single sign-on] and can be cloud based. In addition, as they are all-in-one platforms that mean they need to be working in different devices and platforms. Moreover, they need to be available anytime and anywhere either by working inside an organisation or at home. Another platform, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Connections Connections], from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM IBM], not only offers social streams, communities, blogs and forums, but seamlessly integrates with more traditional tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office Microsoft Office] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook Outlook], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer Windows Explorer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint SharePoint collaboration] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Docs IBM Docs] <ref>IBM Connections. (2014). Social network platform helps improve knowledge sharing, decision-making and innovation. IBM. Available at http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/conn/</ref>. Overall, most of all-in-one enterprise social platforms provide technical features below: *'''Integration with other social platforms'''<ref>Schneider, P. 10 Elements of Leading B2B Social Business Software – Part 2 [Internet]. Socious, Inc.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://info.socious.com/bid/48819/10-Elements-of-Leading-B2B-Social-Business-Software-Part-2</ref> *'''Open API''' *'''Mobile ready''' *'''Platform variety'''<ref>Caldwell, T. Providing context for information is crucial [Internet]. Future Publishing Ltd.; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/enterprise-social-choosing-key-features-1147755/2#articleContent</ref> === CMS features === [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system Content Management Systems] manage web content using a content management application and a content delivery application. The application element allows for web site administration and creation without knowledge of HTML. The delivery application allows for the information to be compiled to update the web page. There are many [http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-system features of a CMS system], but most commonly found are Web-based publishing, format management, document or revision control and indexing for search and retrieval of information. Other [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ features for a good CMS] include a contact form, search features, blogging tools, eCommerce features, social media capabilities, security, multimedia, site management, themes and skins, content management, statistics, login histories, content approval and many more. There are a number of different Content Management Systems, with [http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/top-10-most-usable-content-management-systems--net-6493 some more useable than others]: <ul> <li>[https://www.drupal.org/home Drupal] allows for forums, user blogs and OpenID as well a [https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy Taxonomy] module which allows users to create multiple levels and types of categories. </li> <li>[http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla] is another CMS, which possesses an easy installer, and hosts more than 3200 extensions.</li> <li>In 2014, [https://ellislab.com/expressionengine ExpressionEngine 2.2] was rated the [http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/expression-engine-review.html top CMS available]. The CMS offers a wide range of add-ons, and a well equipped management utility.</li> </ul> === CRM features === CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It refers to relationships management with customers, partners and prospects information<ref>Salesforce. (2014). What is CRM. Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/</ref>. This is performed by identifying and satisfying a company's customers, ensuring contact with each customer is appropriate and based on a knowledge of the customers needs and creating a complete picture of the customer <ref>Knox, S., Maklan, S., & Payne, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management : Perspectives from the Market Place. Jordan Hill, GBR: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com</ref> Paul Greenberg, author of "CRM at the Speed of Light", believes that customer relationship management has become customer partnership management. He believes that not only should businesses manage their customers,but should also engage them and consider them as partners <ref>Enterprise 2.0: Rethinking customer relationship management. (2010). Informationweek - Online, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763243800?accountid=13380</ref> Nowadays, more and more enterprise social platforms are integrating CRM into one place that enables customer relationship to be managed in an efficient way. For example, Ning is an online social platform, that has been widely applied in enterprise 2.0 for people and organizations to create a customer network. As business use of social media for CRM becomes a cross-industry standard, a Gartner's research <ref> Sussin, J. Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2014 [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2679027/top-use-cases-benefits-social </ref> shows insight into the top use cases and benefits of social for CRM in 2014. The research places use cases before technology and reviews the top 20 use cases in marketing, customer service, sales and/or digital commerce by consistent client interest and progressive displays of innovation as seen in the table below. [[File:Top_Use_Cases_of_Social_for_CRM_in_2014_-Gartner.png]] One of the use cases with focus on data opportunities to improve upon Social Media's impact on Marketing, is Building relationships and customer retention. As reflected by our own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia] as an example, and we can[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98NFBm8b9U see how it uses social media] to humanize their brand and connect with customers. Using salesforce.com's Radian6, the bank engages with customers on their channel of choice with the objective of building personal relationships to improve the customer experience. For more examples, please refer to [http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2679027&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=chatter+salesforce Gartner's research]. === LMS features === LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system which is an application provides a set of tools to manage training, administration, learning resources and educational records<ref>EDUCAUSE. (2010). 7 things you should know about LMS alternatives. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf </ref>. It has been used in enterprise social networks for training and educational purposes. An enterprise LMS can assist companies to direct related workforce to the learning programs they need and also monitor the progress of employee development. It is widely used in schools and universities, but it has been popularly integrated in enterprise social platforms such as elcomCMS, Saba People Cloud or eFront. Popular Learning Management Systems include [http://www.brightspace.com/ BrightSpace], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire2Learn Desire2Learn], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. Blackboard] and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle] <ref>Soumplis, A., Koulocheri, E., Kostaras, N., Karousos, N., & Xenos, M. (2011). Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 6(4), 1-18. doi:10.4018/jwltt.2011100101 </ref>. === Social features === There are numerous social features that can be included in a platform. Features offered by [http://www.vinfotech.com/solutions/social-network-design-plans vinfotech Social Network Solutions]infotech, who create customised all in one solutions, include (but are not limited to): <ul> <li>Able to be used on multiple devices</li> <li>User registration, both normal and via Facebook</li> <li>User profiles <li>Friendship modules <li>Activity streams <li>Sharing media including music and photos with copyright violation considerations</li> <li>Importing and exporting both friends and feed with Facebook and Twitter</li> <li>Advertising</li> <li>Brand pages</li> <li>Payment integration</li> <li>Chat integration of Facebook, Google Hangouts and Yahoo</li> </ul> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] has a user interface similar to that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], with regular “update” and “follow” features. [[Tibbr]] is also a sophisticated Facebook like platform that allows users to highlight their skills, projects and persons in their own network. It has an “insights” tab that shows the changing social network through various updatable graphical tools. It can integrate with analytics software such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Oracle] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce], as well as authoring apps such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote Evernote] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn LinkedIn]. It also allows employees to tag their content and posts with external social tools such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts Google Hangouts] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] <ref>Perez, J. C. (2013). Tibco welcomes third-party online meeting products into its Tibbr ESN suite. Computerworld. Available at http://www.computerworld.com/article/2497707/social-business/tibco-welcomes-third-party-online-meeting-products-into-its-tibbr-esn-suite.html</ref>. Yammer is defined be a private social network to benefit people both inside and outside an organization in sharing new ideas, knowledge and information to each other<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. The innovation team of Deloitte Australia commenced to use Yammer right after obtaining information about Yammer from an article in 2008, they applied Yammer as a trial without any further plan for investment. They initially thought that they could apply Yammer into email and voice system of the company since the application is free and easy to use. However, they did not assure if the Yammer could be able to complement any business value<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. In a year followed, Yammer had become one of the most social communicational platforms used inside the firm, the impact and use of the platform quickly disseminated across 5000 employees with 12 offices all over Australia. Afterward, Yammer was considered as one of the core components in business process as well as an important communication platform. Yammer is similar to an in-house Twitter or a micro blogging tool that is used for knowledge sharing purposes<ref>Deloitte. (2010). Social media at Deloitte - Participation, communication, transformation. Deloitte Australia.</ref>. It was initially stared as an in-house chat box for all Deloitte’s employees. Yammer’s potential benefits were recognised the firm’s innovation team commenced to raise questions and resolve problems. Yammer then was proved to be a good way to look for input, test new ideas and rapidly assemble feedbacks. The tool speedily obtained momentum and more than 4600 people have registered to date<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. The global network organization – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is reported to have become one of the world leading Yammer networks with the number of 14,000 members throughout the world. To this point, Deloitte Australia is in the process of Yammer integration for the entire system to offer everyone a free Yammer account without sign up requests. A campaign entitled Green Dot was created inside Deloitte Australia to apply the use of voice mail when sign up to Yammer<ref>Risk, S. (2011, September 22). Deloitte Australia and Yammer Win Prestigious Industry Award for Social Technology Excellence. From Market Wired: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/deloitte-australia-yammer-win-prestigious-industry-award-social-technology-excellence-1564440.htm</ref>. Yammer as social media platform that can help to drive Deloitte’s business value in a number of ways including to assist in flow information improvement, innovative knowledge and idea sharing, lowering turnover of employees (Yammer users obtain a rate of two percent for an average turnover in comparison with 15-20 percent of company average), best management feasibility, productivity enhancement, better workforce cooperation, innovation and creativity improvement, conflict resolution etc.<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Within Deloitte company, Yammer is utilised as a best communication tool for all employees to communicate, exchange new ideas to each other at any time. It is supposed to be a good communication tool with approximately 450 groups and numerous messages delivered to date. <ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> Deloitte Australia is well known as progressive, transparent leadership company that has absolutely encapsulated social technology as the example of Yammer that has assisted to benefit the firm and a more connected and collaborative environment<ref>Williams, P. (2010). Yammer. Yammer Sales Representative.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Software Jive] is another popular all in one enterprise platform that can be accessed on computers as well as smartphones. In addition to blogs, posts, reviews, editable wikis and other common tools, it has a Recommendations feature that shows each employee the other executives within the organisation they might wish to contact, based on work interests, experience and roles within the company. This is similar to the “friends” recommendation on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Facebook], but it is more structured and outcome oriented <ref>Fairchild, M. (2014). Vendor Solution Brief: Jive Social Software. HRLab.com. Available from: http://www.hrlab.com/jive-software.php</ref>. Another distinguishing feature of these enterprise platforms is that they exhibit all the four characteristics of traditional social media – communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection <ref>Cook, N. (2009). Enterprise 2.0 How social software will change the future of work. England: Gower Publishing Limited.</ref>. Moreover, most of the platforms are highly flexible and can be customized by the client organization to suit its own business requirements – modules, apps and various tools can be added or removed in a manner that aligns the platform’s functions with its corporate social media policy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com SalesForce chatter] and other such platforms allow profile creation, incorporation of work tasks and close collaboration in a secure manner. This leads to more open communication channels, increased networking among employees, lower attrition rates, higher productivity and quicker assimilation of new employees into the organization’s culture <ref>Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.</ref>. === Detailed features === Apart from high-level features of enterprise social platforms such as CMS, CRM and LMS features, there are detailed functions that aligned with these high-level features. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Functions ! Description |- | Search | It allows users to search internal resources including contents, user files, posts on the platform etc. Most of enterprise social platforms have this function except [http://www.ning.com Ning]. |- | Tags | Defined as the connection cross-referencing each piece of content to other related content, which fill the gaps around documents and help people understand contents by just clicking the tag <ref>Zets, A. (2014). Enterprise Social Network Killer App: Content is Next-to-Worthless Without Context. Retrieved from https://www.mumbacloud.com/blog/enterprise-social-network-killer-app-content-is-next-to-worthless-without-context</ref>. |- | Microblogs | It is a web application that provides post polls for user to send messages and get instant feedback or opinions. [https://www.gotrickle.com/features/ Trickle] is one of the typical ESN platforms allows users to create own communities to start discussion on a topic. |- | Groups | It aims to create online communities or groups of individuals in an organization. All the ESN features such as document sharing, chatting or Wikis) can be used within the group. |- | Wikis | It is a web application that enables a group of users creating, editing and sharing knowledge on one platform. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/exo/ eXo] is one of the typical ESNs integrate Wikis. |- | Information sharing | This function integrates file sharing, document management and bookmarking into one function. |- | Third-party integration | Integrations are the add-ons features provided by the third parties. It allows organizations to customize their ESN platforms in what they need<ref> DIGITAL MARKETING DEPORT. (2014). MARKET INTELLINGENCE REPORT: Enterprise Social Media Management Software 2014: A marketer’s Guide. Retrieved from http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/thirddoormedia/images/MIR_1305_EntSocMd13.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons63LZKXonjHpfsX77%2BksUa%2BwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTsNnI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTbLCMbpx37gNXxU%3D </ref>. ElcomCMS uses SharePoint as one of their add-on features. |- | Online communication |It refers to real time online chatting as known as instant messaging from one to another. [http://products.office.com/en/lync/lync Microsoft Linc] is one of online messaging softwares for enterprise. |- | Forums |It is a discussion tool that allows users to create a topic and comment on the board. It supports to search topics, ban users, notifications, moderations etc. [http://www.exoplatform.com/ eXo platform] has forum function for users to communicate on a topic. |- | Accessibility |It refers to enterprise social platforms can be accessed from different devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPad etc. [www.yammer.com Yammer] supports smart phones application. |- | Decision making |Through voting and updating ideas in real time published on pools, enterprise social platforms can help users make decisions in an efficient manner. For example, groups can propose and manage ideas by creating a poll for voting, which decisions can be made without physical meetings. [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.confluence.poll Voting for Confluence] is a decision making add-on for [https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Confluence]. |- |} == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talened people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. Please, visit [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms the case studies of enterprise social platforms] page. This page gives some example of successful and unsuccessful case studies of enterprise social platforms. == Future of all-in-one social platforms== With the highly dynamic nature of technology, business and social life, organisations around the world are adopting the more radical application of innovation and creativity to remain at the competitive edge. This is being achieved through continuous research and development into the future of all-in-one social platforms. This Wiki gives an insight into the future of these technologies in the following aspects: *Technology Aspects *Business Aspects *Social Aspects A deeper discussion on the '''[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]''' gives further insight into the technological, business and social aspects of the future of social technologies. ==Challenges Encountered in All-In-One Enterprise Social Platforms== ===User Engagement Levels=== All-in-one platforms have the advantage of enhancing communication and interactions between organizational staff members and stakeholders. They also facilitate the sharing of knowledge and permits transparency of information. Despite these advantages, it is important to point out that the involvement of users can have a marked effect on the system. An all-in-one platform needs the users to both retrieve, contribute and share information. A recent research indicates that only the active contributors seem to have a consistent experience of the possible benefits accrued from social technology platforms whereas the passive users cannot realize the actual benefits from a group, even, not even for the ones that are often related to acquisition of information. <ref> Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J., Weiss, D., Damianos, L., & Cuomo, D. (2012). Evaluation of the uses and benefits of a social business platform. CHI EA’ 12, 721-736. doi: 10.1145/2212776.2212844 </ref> According to social network analytics, the active contributors have a considerable level of connectivity because they play key roles in the social network. This means that the success of an all-in-one social platform depends on how passive readers can be transformed active contributors. In relation to this, Muller (2012) recommends that ll members of the social platform of an enterprise needs to be in a position to not only choose but also co-refine and co-create roles with fellow members. <ref> Muller, M. (2012). Lurking as personal trait or situational disposition: lurking and contributing in enterprise social media. CSCW’ 12, 253-256. doi: 10.1145/2145204.2145245 </ref> This is an indication that the ideal all-in-one social platform is the one that engages more contributors by allowing them to utilise their talents to contribute to the success of functional roles. ===Security of Information=== Leakage of confidential organisational information has been blamed on the weakness of Enterprise social platforms permitting the delivery of information to both intended and unintended audiences. Besides, the technology has also been accused of exposing users and their content to undesirable audience in the social media. This is because there is often a need to have classified information delivered to the intended recipients alone. The interesting bit about these faults of social media platforms is that managers condone it as it allows them to intercept the communication among employees and unearth any unwelcome secrets or conspiracies that may be exposed as users exchange information. The internet has created a common platform that allows people to converge their ideas and express their common preferences while shunning all ideas that may bring about conflicts. This comes as a disadvantage to information sharing because sincerity and transparency are compromised in a platform that lacks appropriate measures for information verification. <ref> Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref> <ref> Singer, N. (2011, May 28). The trouble with the echo chamber online. New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=0</ref>. Such unwarranted Internet effects have been reported in various sectors including the scientific, entertainment and political arenas<ref>Van, A. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2005). Global village or cyber-balkans? Modeling and measuring the integration of electronic communities. Management Science, 51(6), 851–868.</ref>; <ref>Pariser, E. (2011).The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin.</ref>. Moreover , in-house implementation of a system that is not accessible from outside of the organization is a sure way of assuring privacy and security in organizations. These private systems may be on open systems integrated on organizational servers of open source. Otherwise, the system may still be affected privately as “software as a service.” According to Danis and Singer (2008)<ref>Danis, C., & Singer, D. (2008). A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality. CSCW '08 (pp. 495–504). ACM</ref>, from the very first onset, numerous wikis were built on organizational intranets. In a survey conducted by Majchrzak Wagner and Yates (2006)<ref>Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006).Corporate wiki users: Results of a survey. WikiSym '06 (pp. 99–104). ACM.</ref> on , managers of 168 organizations having internal wikis, it was found that work productivity, knowledge reuse, and collaboration was improved by corporate wikis. ===Issues of Privacy=== One of the most important elements of information sharing platforms, especially social media, is privacy. Conversely, an all-in-one enterprise social platform cannot be as public as regular social media platforms, but the risk of privacy compromise is not dismissible. More often than not, an intranet all-in-one platform are not considered safe for users to share important personal and business information. Findings from an IBM research<ref> DiMicco, J., Millen, D. R., Geyer, W., Dugan, C., Brownholtz, B., & Muller, M. (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. CSCW’ 08, 711-720. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460674 </ref>users did not indicate any concern for the privacy policy guiding the sharing of information within the enterprise intranet. Nevertheless, another study claims that a valuable enterprise social platform can be developed with its base on public data alone, <ref> Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., & Shahar, E. (2008). Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. CSCW’ 08, 393-402. doi: 10.1145/1460563.1460627 </ref> which shows that an Internet-based enterprise platform can have much more usefulness, especially because several Web 2.0 features like search engines are heavily dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Consequently, some enterprise platforms utilize both intranet and Internet social media to resolve the challenge of privacy versus usability. This, however, adds up to the ultimate complexity and cost of the operating the system. The other possible solution is the execution of different privacy control strategies for different categories of users although some users may be offended when some classified content is made opaque. As such, the privacy level still remains a huge challenge for the future generations of control all-in-one enterprise social platforms. === Lack of adoption=== The complex issue when it comes to adopting something new is that, the users are not well informed about it. For example, when a company adopts a new social tool to develop their business, they do not train their staff enough which in turn leads to unlikeliness to adopt the change. The usage of such enterprise social networking tools must be mastered at the top most level to enhance the promotion of the adoption and provision of the necessary resources in the entire organisation. A press release states <ref> http://www.cio.in/news/gartner-only-10-percent-social-networking-roll-outs-succeed-390092013 </ref>, ‘social collaboration success is only 10% for an organisation’ and this is due the insufficient change management provided. The “Provide and Pray” approach lacks focusing on the purpose itself. Challenges The Academia<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> has identified some of the challenges encountered with the adoption of Enterprise Social Platform in large organisations. They have categorized these challenges into internal and external challenges. Based on their findings, the internal challenges identified are resources, ownership, authorization, attitudes and economic issues, while the external factors are company reputation, legal issues and public/private network identity. Based on these findings, the Academia<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> has developed a proposal on how organisations can prepare strategies and guidelines for social enterprise adoption and use. Internal Challenges The internal challenges have been categorized into five according to Academia<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref>. The following is a brief discussion on their findings for each category. Resource Based on Academia’s<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> findings, large organisations have failed to provide human resources directly assigned specifically to work on building and coordinating their social enterprise platform asset. Social enterprise adoption in organisations has been done on an ad-hoc basis, whereby employees take out time at work to coordinate the use of the platform. The future of enterprise social platform in large organisations has been tied to resource availability whereby people have to be assigned to and responsible for the coordination and production of content. Ownership Academia’s<ref> http://www.academia.edu/3115699/DETERMINING_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ADOPTION_AND_USE </ref> findings point to the fact that most organisations do not have a clearly defined owner for their enterprise social activities. No individual or department has clearly defined responsibility for the enterprise social platform. ===Transparency and Misconception=== When all the secure information is shared across the enterprise through a social networking tool it ensures there is transparency which may or may not be accepted by all parts of the organization. It is just that all the information that have to be maintained as private can also become public. So many organisations are still waiting to make use of the best practices instead of just using the social tools. There has been assumption that the enterprise social networking works only in selected industries. Dion states that in industries such as medicine or manufacturing social tools will not be good.<ref> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 </ref> He also believes that this has spread unevenly in the industries which have few competitors or they adopt late to the technology. Few organisations also believe that the utilization of such tools in some industries is not very professional. To add up to it, the use of the tools is based on the return on investment (ROI) which is not always readily available. Some organisations consider the tool as a complete waste of their time. ===Behavioural issues=== In today’s world the one area which is mainly concerning is the usage of the social networking tool within an organisation. The effect of the same and the impact it has and the behavioural issues. As the internal relation within a social network is not a strong bond to business process and structured information systems, the overall effect and the human psychology become more evident. Martin Butler states in his research that ‘Emerging concerns cover issues such as attention management, death by trivia, dominant personalities, behavioural adoption and influence strategies’. ==Success measures for All-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms (ESP) deployment== There are some best practices which organisations have to make sure they follow in order to make sure their ESP deployment is successful<ref>Admin, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Drive Adoption for Your Enterprise Social Network. Mumba Cloud. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from https://www.mumbacloud.com/5-ways-to-drive-adoption-for-your-enterprise-social-network</ref>. ===Executive Sponsorship=== There is a lot of investment that is made by the company to deploy the ESP. After having invested this amount, the company starts expecting a lot of interaction with this new system. The company should also go a step further and openly advertise its strategy and vision for the ESP. This will help the employees understand the company’s motive better and what it is hoping to achieve, which will encourage them to effectively use the ESP. ===Process Transition=== The executives should be clear as to which processes will be run in the ESP. There should be a number of processes selected which are best done using the ESP. The processes such as discussion, broadcasting, training and participation are all done very effectively using this platform. It is with the aim of improving such processes that the ESP was brought into place, and thus should be immediately tried and tested upon. ===Incentives=== Incentives provide a very effective way of encouraging people to adopt change. Furthermore, new techniques such as gamification encourage participants to not only take part in the new development, but also to stay connected and contribute. Gamification involves making the participants play a game while using the ESP, where they are competing with others for prizes or badges. Awards can be given to the ones who have participated the most in the ESP by way of comments or shares. ===Training=== Training is one of the drivers in making people adopt the ESP. Employees must be trained in the form of demonstrations given to them to use the ESP. There should be separate budget allocations made for this purpose in separate stages. The training should be done before the deployment for them to get a basic understanding, during the deployment there should be a lot more support, and also after for sustained support. ===Culture=== The culture of the company plays a very important role in determining the success of its new ESP. The culture of the company should be well studied and the ESP should be designed according to that. When the ESP is deployed, it should be easy for the employees to relate to it, due to the ESP having a striking resemblance to the company culture. If the activities that are done on the ESN are similar to the ones that they actually enjoy at workplace, the ESP becomes very popular. ==Criticism== While most people believe that the implementation of social media platform in enterprises can greatly contribute to the improvement of productivity as well as working efficiency, some other people strike up a discordant tune, claiming that social media cannot lead to a revolutionary business nirvana. <ref> Howlett, D. (2013). Social Media? The Party’s Over – Thank Goodness. Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2013/10/03/social-media-partys-goodness/#.VCNVJPmSx8N </ref> Criticism points out that technology has never been able to deal with all problems without a precise business objective. The key of redesigning business systems is based on a simply correct business model. All-in-one social media platforms will not help in that case, but only increase the complexity of business systems and make the problem tougher. Other critics comment that enterprise social media has plunged into the gloomy depths of what is called “the trough of disillusionment”, <ref>Wright, P. W. (2014). Yammer: 3 Reasons Social Can’t Prove Value in the Enterprise (yet). Retrieved from: http://diginomica.com/2014/02/14/3-reasons-social-prove-enterprise/#.VCNfcvmSx8N </ref>, based on a theory raised by Gartner’s hype cycle model. <ref>Gartner Hype Cycle. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp </ref> The data in the year of 2013 collected by Forbes predicted that there would a dramatic decline in the need of social media manager in the next year, and it is proved to be true. <ref> Holmes, R. (2013). The Social Media Manager is Dead. Long Live Social Media. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/10/01/the-social-media-manager-is-dead-long-live-social-media/ </ref> Yammer’s CTO, Adam Pisoni, admitted that there existed three obstacles resulting in the less expectation of enterprise social media: the technology was not mature enough, the network was not big enough and nobody knowed how to do this. == References == <references/> 68. Anthony J. Bradley, (2013). Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit. Retrieved september 24,2014 from : http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/ 69. Hinchcliffe, Dion, 2009. Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing. retrieved september 24,2014 from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/ten-top-issues-in-adopting-enterprise-social-computing/581 70. Michael Liedtke (2012). Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/microsoft-buys-yammer-for_n_1625193.html 71. Butler, Chester (2010). Enterprise Social Networking and Collaboration. Martin Butler Research. Retrieved september 25, 2014 72. DiMicco, Joan, Millen, David R., Geyer, Werner, Dugan, Casey, Brownholtz, Beth and Muller, Michael (2008). Motivations for Social Networking at Work. Retrieved september 25, 2014 from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/5800/p711-dimicco.pdf 73. IBM, (2013) retrieved september 25,2014 from: http://www.ibm.com/design/ 74. KPMG,(2013). Social media lessons from banking insiders. Retrieved September 25, 2014 from: http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf 75. Himanshu Sareen, (2014). Enterprise Social Networks may one day replace email. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/enterprise-social-networks-may-one-day-replace-email/ 76.TechRepublic. (2013). How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/ 78ea52f8b05eb8ffe463c97e09683dd309a2862d 0 27 454 450 2014-09-26T13:42:37Z Dharini 3383208 /* Unsuccessful cases */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In later 2013, Bloomfire, a social collaboration tool used in the building of communities integrated very well with Salesforce.com and helped the sales team perform better through the sharing of expertise. Crowdsourcing enhanced the speed of getting answers. The Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com helped improve access to knowledge resources from people within the organization who may readily have answers. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref>. Bloomfire helps in getting the information that the sales and the service teams require in order to convert more leads, close many deals, and serve the customers much effectively. <ref>Kim Carlson & Omri Goldshtrom, (2013). "Salesforce integration: bringing Bloomfire where you work" information retrieved from https://community.bloomfire.com/posts/710399-salesforce-integration-bringing-bloomfire-where-you-work/public</ref>. Salesforce application promotes interaction that drives continuous participation throughout the Bloomfire community. So, there is a balance in participation and as a result everyone contributes. Hence, Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com is as an effective enterprise social platform. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. The other reason why social platform fail is because there is a lack in the familiarity of these platforms and at the managerial level there is no Organization expertise. Companies make use of social media only when necessary and for the rest they keep it at a hand stretch. The reason being that, organisation have been working in a different way for a long time now and it takes time to adapt to these changes. <ref> http://www.zdnet.com/2013-predictions-for-enterprise-social-media-7000009964/ </ref> The reason that can be stated is inappropriate usage of the social media. There is always a fear that what if someone post something wrong about the company. This happens because even though it works within an organisation there can be few employees who can misuse it for a wrong reason. The information is out in public and nothing can be done. They staff can use alias names and then give away useful information that may end up as a potential threat or the bosses can take it as an advantage to dominate over the lower level staff. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . The reason why '''Yammer''' is failing miserably is because Microsoft has given a false start. It has added it to all of their enterprise agreement. clients without even know what they have been offered are simply assuming now that they are a part of the collaboration tool while the reality is far from it. After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. The other reason is that when the clients buy the tools they do not know as to how it can be customised to their industry need. Every industry has its own requirements. The capability that is completely lacking to respond to operational objectives is where Yammer is losing out as it cannot address the large organisations requirements. This is when the vendors realise that a platform as simple as this cannot be customised for different types of organization.<ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 26, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. Another unsuccessful case study is about two Australian local government organisations. These two local government organisations initially found that adding an internal social media tool creates one communications tool too many. Both the local government organisations have abandoned trials of enterprise social network Yammer as a result of their experiences <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. According to Amanda Callbutt, formerly of the IT support office at the '''Local Government Association (LGA) of South Australia''', says the organisation trialled Yammer after being introduced to the tool by [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte], which has evangelised the software. She says, the people that were using '''Yammer''' initially were tech savvy and strong users of social media already and wanted it to succeed. However, beyond that tech-savvy group, other users were not enthusiastic <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. [http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ '''Wingecarribee Shire Council'''] had a similar story to tell. According to Andy Carnahan, Information Services Manager, looked at '''Yammer''' because their General Manager attended to a presentation where a presenter from [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte] said they use it and publicly praised its capabilities <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. The IT team was asked to implement a trial which Information Services and team found simple to implement. The Information Services team introduced '''Yammer''' on people who would be interested, such as the community relations team, the General Manager and the executives. The outcome of this trail session was that the usage was very irregular. Andy Carnahan says, there would be a outbreak when a new person would come in, but it did not gain traction or critical mass and Yammer did not make it into production <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> Deloitte. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government Wingecarribee Shire Council. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ ff8697fb68c978317a6f56e8a8a4254837a7555c 479 454 2014-09-26T23:51:10Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Case studies of enterprise social platforms]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki == Case studies == Enterprise social platforms are a phenomena that most organizations aim to embrace because of the successful implementation with many organizations till now. Organizations use this technology after a deep case study about which platform to use. The case study highlights the return on investment the organizations might get out of the implementation of enterprise social platforms. In terms of internal benefits, organizations are willing to get better collaboration and knowledge management that lead for better performance and productivity. In addition, talented people are easy to be explored that will help get matched with certain tasks according to McKinsey's<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. In terms of external benefits, organization aims to engaged and closer to their customers by sharing their updates and having their feedback. According to McKinsey, social media can help organizations in terms of sales and marketing and products development<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. However, as there are a number of successful case studies in implementing the right enterprise social platform, there are also case studies faced difficulties in implementing such technologies and that led them to either a big failure or changing to another platforms. Also, it was noted that some platforms were successful with many organizations but some weren't that might be due the work culture, business process structure or management change. As an example, Yammer is the most successful enterprise social platform and it was successful with many different organizations. However, Yammer was not accepted by KPMG because it doesn't meet their security rules<ref>Tibbr customers: Building a social enterprise Techgoondu. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/10/17/tibbr-customers-how-to-build-a-social-enterprise/#.VCSe_SuSxd-</ref>. === Successful case studies === There are a number of case studies of successful enterprise social platforms. Some of the projects are based on only one platform and some are based on the integration with different platforms. The below cases studies are examples of a successful implementation of enterprise social platforms. *'''Boston Children’s Hospital''' uses OPENPediatrics, an implementation of IBM Connections, to provide medical education to doctors and apprentices across the world. This allows all the participating hospitals to augment their knowledge bases almost on an hourly basis and makes information flow easier [18]. *'''Alcatel-Lucent telecommunicatio'''n introduced Ask@Ben, a system that let workers interact directly with the CEO, and uptake of Yammer, well-known as enterprise microblogging platform. These both social platforms broke new ground for the company, and workers became more familiar with social tools to collaborate with each other and their management. *'''CEMEX''', the world's largest building materials supplier developed social network in 2009 and named it Shift. It was designed as an internal space for workforce collaboration using Enterprise 2.0 ideas. The Shift enabled people to connect together with common interests, who create a rich user profile and then collaborate with each other via set of social features. *The luxury goods designer '''Burberry''' strategically partnered with Salesforce and created a true social enterprise. Burberry has effectively built a social customer experience and has over 10 million Facebook fans as they've situated Chatter and other technologies such as IM for workers to engage with each other and customers to drive better results. *'''Eni energy company''' uses Microsoft SharePoint to achieve collaboration and knowledge management needs by systemising the current knowledge it has and getting a new knowledge from its employees to be spread to the public within the organisation. This helps Eni have more productivity with less cost by investing on enterprise social platforms. Please, [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Eni_enterprise_social_platform click here to read more about the case study]. *Supervalu is U.S. grocery channel is considered as one of the organizations that successfully uses one of the enterprise social platforms which "Yammer". Yammer helped Supervalu to get connected effectively with its different outlets around USA. "Yammer has been effective at helping to flatten the company and foster more direct communication between associates in the stores and executives who are making the decisions that affect the company’s very future"<ref>Desmond, P. (n.d.). CIO 100: Supervalu Uses Social Media to Connect with Employees and Spur Turnaround. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nttcom.tv/2012/08/22/supervalu-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-employees-and-spur-turnaround/</ref>. *In the year 2008, '''National Instruments''' (NI), a producer of virtual instrumentation software and automated test equipment in the USA, launched the NI Developer Community which was powered by Jive in order to facilitate the NI worldwide community of scientists and engineers unearth, discover and collaborate on software code, engineering challenges and tutorials. After about an year, as part of phase two activities, NI integrated the capabilities of Jive social media to enable connectivity with its enormous fan-base of scientists and engineers by means of famous social media giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.<ref>http://www.jivesoftware.com, (2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014. "Jive Social Business Software at Work." information retrieved from http://www.jivesoftware.com/why-jive/resources/case-studies/national-instruments/</ref>. *In early 2014, Jive software successfully got integrated with MICROS OPERA, an e-business suite used in the hospitality industry. OPERA, a MICROS property management system is extensively used in many large hotel chains. This system provides check-ins, reservations, room inventory, billing and accounting tools and is put into use by many famous resorts and huge hotels, such as the Hyatt, Oberoi chains and Marriott. With respect to the hospitality industry, Jive software's voice is a completely hosted cloud PBX solution with custom-made features. Jive's integration with OPERA is a combination of its expertise and industry knowledge to provide a cloud-based, mobile and on premise solutions that allow its clients to streamline its operations and engage their customers successfully.<ref>Scott Marshall, (2014). "Jive Communications Announces Integration with MICROS OPERA Property Management System" information retrieved from http://jive.com/jive-integrates-micros-opera-jive-hospitality-solutions/</ref> *In later 2013, Bloomfire, a social collaboration tool used in the building of communities integrated very well with Salesforce.com and helped the sales team perform better through the sharing of expertise. Crowdsourcing enhanced the speed of getting answers. The Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com helped improve access to knowledge resources from people within the organization who may readily have answers. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref>. Bloomfire helps in getting the information that the sales and the service teams require in order to convert more leads, close many deals, and serve the customers much effectively. <ref>Kim Carlson & Omri Goldshtrom, (2013). "Salesforce integration: bringing Bloomfire where you work" information retrieved from https://community.bloomfire.com/posts/710399-salesforce-integration-bringing-bloomfire-where-you-work/public</ref>. Salesforce application promotes interaction that drives continuous participation throughout the Bloomfire community. So, there is a balance in participation and as a result everyone contributes. Hence, Bloomfire's integration with Salesforce.com is as an effective enterprise social platform. <ref>Ann Augustine, (2014). "Bloomfire Integration with Salesforce.com Improves Access to Knowledge Resources" information retrieved from http://collaboration.about.com/od/enterprise/tp/Bloomfire-Integration-with-Salesforcecom-Improves-Access-to-Knowledge-Resources.htm</ref> *In an effort to improve collaboration among their 10 000+ cabin staff, '''Cathay Pacific Airlines''' implemented [http://www.tibbr.com/who-uses-it/cathaypacific.php tibbr]. The platform allowed for real-time travel alerts, announcements and assisted with employee engagement. [http://rippleffectgroup.com/2013/11/28/case-study-how-cathay-pacific-revolutionised-communication-with-their-cabin-crew-using-tibbr/ Tools utilised] include: ***Broadcasting critical updates and travel alerts ***Using electronic instead of paper updates ***Live streaming of monthly updates with questions and feedback in real time ***rapid feedback on policy changes You can compare the knowledge of successful all-in-one social platform cases with the unsuccessful cases discussed below, or click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === Unsuccessful cases === Over the past decade, social networks such as facebook and myspace have taken the world by storm, with hundreds of millions of users all across the globe. Although, many organizations look at these social networks as a nuisance and a burden on employee productivity. Some companies have even gone so far as to ban the use of social networks in the organization, preventing their use by blocking them with their corporate firewalls. There are various reasons why enterprise social platforms fail. The number one reason is: no genuine buy-in from senior executives. Reason being they don't want to endorse it, they don't want to use it and they don't want to see the business value by implementing enterprise social platform. According to Gartner's research<ref>Gartner,(2013).Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215</ref>, estimates through 2015 shows that 80% of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits, due to the inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology. The other reason why social platform fail is because there is a lack in the familiarity of these platforms and at the managerial level there is no Organization expertise. Companies make use of social media only when necessary and for the rest they keep it at a hand stretch. The reason being that, organisation have been working in a different way for a long time now and it takes time to adapt to these changes. <ref> http://www.zdnet.com/2013-predictions-for-enterprise-social-media-7000009964/ </ref> The reason that can be stated is inappropriate usage of the social media. There is always a fear that what if someone post something wrong about the company. This happens because even though it works within an organisation there can be few employees who can misuse it for a wrong reason. The information is out in public and nothing can be done. They staff can use alias names and then give away useful information that may end up as a potential threat or the bosses can take it as an advantage to dominate over the lower level staff. Enterprise social platforms have failed to gather critical mass (enough employees using them) or meet user expectations in a number of cases. The reason is that many organizations implement such a platform at some part of their business that is not important enough to them and does not, therefore, generate enough interest. Since not enough measurable data is generated, there is no visible improvement in the work environment and the platform fails to take off <ref>Rykaszewski, S., Ma, M. & Shen, Y. (2013). Failure in Social Enterprises. SEE Change Magazine. Available from: http://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-rykaszewski-et-al.pdf</ref>. Another mistake is to invite employees who do not need to collaborate in the first place, and therefore, do not have a purpose to start interacting on the platform <ref>Wolpe, T. (2013). Jive Software: Where firms are going wrong with social rollouts. ZDNet. Available at http://www.zdnet.com/jive-software-where-firms-are-going-wrong-with-social-rollouts-7000019399/</ref>. In order to understand, why social business tools are not living up to their hype or potential expectation, we can start looking at the reasons behind enterprise social networking implementation in large corporations. Most of the organisations strategically bundle their products or services for their own benefits. One such example is Microsoft-a technology giant which is approaching the social business market by simply bundling products into its enterprise agreements. Microsoft bundles '''Yammer''' into its enterprise agreements that results in their clients being blind sided, by assuming they've entered the enterprise social networking revolution <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref> . The reason why '''Yammer''' is failing miserably is because Microsoft has given a false start. It has added it to all of their enterprise agreement. clients without even know what they have been offered are simply assuming now that they are a part of the collaboration tool while the reality is far from it. After an implementation phase of 12 to 24 months, ineffective attempts to drive productivity and unlock value are realised and thereby enterprise social networking is being rejected as an ineffective passing technology trend. Therefore, the enterprise sector of the market is best served by software vendors capable of supporting complex requirements. In order to have an effective and successful enterprise social platform, organisations must seek to unlock operational value by considering vendors that can support them with ongoing and diverse requirements with agile and continuous improvement <ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 23, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. The other reason is that when the clients buy the tools they do not know as to how it can be customised to their industry need. Every industry has its own requirements. The capability that is completely lacking to respond to operational objectives is where Yammer is losing out as it cannot address the large organisations requirements. This is when the vendors realise that a platform as simple as this cannot be customised for different types of organization.<ref>Zets, A. (2013). TechRepublic, How Yammer is killing enterprise social networking. Retreived September 26, 2014 from : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/how-yammer-is-killing-enterprise-social-networking/</ref>. Therefore, to avoid the ''temporarily delayed'' social revolution, companies should work effectively with their enterprise software vendors as they play a vital role in directing the organization back into the success phase. Another unsuccessful case study is about two Australian local government organisations. These two local government organisations initially found that adding an internal social media tool creates one communications tool too many. Both the local government organisations have abandoned trials of enterprise social network Yammer as a result of their experiences <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. According to Amanda Callbutt, formerly of the IT support office at the '''Local Government Association (LGA) of South Australia''', says the organisation trialled Yammer after being introduced to the tool by [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte], which has evangelised the software. She says, the people that were using '''Yammer''' initially were tech savvy and strong users of social media already and wanted it to succeed. However, beyond that tech-savvy group, other users were not enthusiastic <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. [http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ '''Wingecarribee Shire Council'''] had a similar story to tell. According to Andy Carnahan, Information Services Manager, looked at '''Yammer''' because their General Manager attended to a presentation where a presenter from [http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Deloitte] said they use it and publicly praised its capabilities <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. The IT team was asked to implement a trial which Information Services and team found simple to implement. The Information Services team introduced '''Yammer''' on people who would be interested, such as the community relations team, the General Manager and the executives. The outcome of this trail session was that the usage was very irregular. Andy Carnahan says, there would be a outbreak when a new person would come in, but it did not gain traction or critical mass and Yammer did not make it into production <ref>Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government/</ref>. You can always click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. === References === <references/> Deloitte. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_AU/au/index.htm Sharwood, Simon. (2012). Theregister, In-house social media struggles in local government. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/yammer_stammers_in_australian_local_government Wingecarribee Shire Council. (2014). Retrieved on September 26,2014 from: http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/ ff8697fb68c978317a6f56e8a8a4254837a7555c 6 36 456 2014-09-26T13:45:18Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 0 37 457 2014-09-26T13:46:09Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 Created page with "[[File:Convo.png|400px|thumb|right|Convo]] Convo is a communication tool. With support for over 33 file types, it's easy to drop pictures, videos and links into conversations..." wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Convo.png|400px|thumb|right|Convo]] Convo is a communication tool. With support for over 33 file types, it's easy to drop pictures, videos and links into conversations. It has the same profile, status updates, news feed and group-control as most Enterprise Social Networks and is optimized for desktop and mobile use. <ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==Features <ref>Convo. Features [Internet]. Convo.com [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.convo.com/features/</ref>== *Messaging & Notifications: Send realtime messages to individuals or Groups. The user gets notifications when teammates @mention them, share posts, or leave comments. *Annotation: Comments can be paired with visual markups on content to give teammates clear and exact feedback. *Groups: Create Groups for different parts of work. Groups can be organized by teams, projects or shared interests with work colleagues. *Search: Easily go back and find previous posts, files, links, comments you shared with the team. *Invite Guests: Work with external clients, vendors or any third-parties. This featured in controlled and the user sets the privacy of the content. *Private & Group Chat ==Impact== Companies that use Convo include The Next Web, TechCrunch and the Oxford Leadership Academy. </ref name="mashable"> ==Licenses and Cost== The Basic package for 20 users or less is free; the Premium package for up to 100 users is $9 per user/month; and there is also an Enterprise package. <ref name="mashable"> =References== <references /> 43f37036c7612b7ae12d4cb8e3d7fe0b1d4afa12 458 457 2014-09-26T13:47:55Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 +Convo wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Convo.png|400px|thumb|right|Convo]] Convo is a communication tool. With support for over 33 file types, it's easy to drop pictures, videos and links into conversations. It has the same profile, status updates, news feed and group-control as most Enterprise Social Networks and is optimized for desktop and mobile use. <ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==Features == Convo presents the following features:<ref>Convo. Features [Internet]. Convo.com [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.convo.com/features/</ref> *Messaging & Notifications: Send realtime messages to individuals or Groups. The user gets notifications when teammates @mention them, share posts, or leave comments. *Annotation: Comments can be paired with visual markups on content to give teammates clear and exact feedback. *Groups: Create Groups for different parts of work. Groups can be organized by teams, projects or shared interests with work colleagues. *Search: Easily go back and find previous posts, files, links, comments you shared with the team. *Invite Guests: Work with external clients, vendors or any third-parties. This featured in controlled and the user sets the privacy of the content. *Private & Group Chat ==Impact== Companies that use Convo include The Next Web, TechCrunch and the Oxford Leadership Academy. <ref name="mashable"/> ==Licenses and Cost== The Basic package for 20 users or less is free; the Premium package for up to 100 users is $9 per user/month; and there is also an Enterprise package. <ref name="mashable"/> =References== <references /> 643a0db07157722bffbeeab3e7a17ac8e135bdb8 485 458 2014-09-26T23:54:05Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Convo]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Convo.png|400px|thumb|right|Convo]] Convo is a communication tool. With support for over 33 file types, it's easy to drop pictures, videos and links into conversations. It has the same profile, status updates, news feed and group-control as most Enterprise Social Networks and is optimized for desktop and mobile use. <ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==Features == Convo presents the following features:<ref>Convo. Features [Internet]. Convo.com [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.convo.com/features/</ref> *Messaging & Notifications: Send realtime messages to individuals or Groups. The user gets notifications when teammates @mention them, share posts, or leave comments. *Annotation: Comments can be paired with visual markups on content to give teammates clear and exact feedback. *Groups: Create Groups for different parts of work. Groups can be organized by teams, projects or shared interests with work colleagues. *Search: Easily go back and find previous posts, files, links, comments you shared with the team. *Invite Guests: Work with external clients, vendors or any third-parties. This featured in controlled and the user sets the privacy of the content. *Private & Group Chat ==Impact== Companies that use Convo include The Next Web, TechCrunch and the Oxford Leadership Academy. <ref name="mashable"/> ==Licenses and Cost== The Basic package for 20 users or less is free; the Premium package for up to 100 users is $9 per user/month; and there is also an Enterprise package. <ref name="mashable"/> =References== <references /> 643a0db07157722bffbeeab3e7a17ac8e135bdb8 3 12 459 66 2014-09-26T13:48:52Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What are Social Platforms?''' A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. == What is all-in-one Social platform? == '''All-in-one social platform.''' The social tool which is intended to be a single platform for social content integrating most of the social media features. Moreover, the meaning to the term "All-in-one enterprise social platform could be better understood if it is break down into meaningful contents. For instance, "All-in-one'' as a content, "enterprise" as a content and "social platform" as a content. According to [http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform technodepia], social platform means a web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social technology solutions and services. To further understand this definition, it is important to ask what are the social technology solutions and services? From my understanding, the social technology solutions include email, blog, wiki, social network, instant messaging, content hosting, video conference, podcast and so on. it is very hard to find a social platform with all these solutions or applications. Integrate all these solutions into on one solution platform makes it 'all in one'. As for the Enterprise, we all know what it means. Reference Technodepia, Social Platform http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform 4fef0ed036aa66d166055f127c75fc8955de6349 460 459 2014-09-26T13:50:20Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What are Social Platforms?''' A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. == What is all-in-one Social platform? == '''All-in-one social platform.''' The social tool which is intended to be a single platform for social content integrating most of the social media features. Moreover, the meaning to the term "All-in-one enterprise social platform could be better understood if it is break down into meaningful contents. For instance, "All-in-one'' as a content, "enterprise" as a content and "social platform" as a content. According to [http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform Technodepia], social platform means a web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social technology solutions and services. To further understand this definition, it is important to ask what are the social technology solutions and services? From my understanding, the social technology solutions include email, blog, wiki, social network, instant messaging, content hosting, video conference, podcast and so on. it is very hard to find a social platform with all these solutions or applications. Integrate all these solutions into on one solution platform makes it 'all in one'. <ref> http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform </ref> As for the Enterprise, we all know what it means. Referance 9c336712ee33b7b90f144f044411f535f0cfa01e 461 460 2014-09-26T13:52:52Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What are Social Platforms?''' A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. == What is all-in-one Social platform? == '''All-in-one social platform.''' The social tool which is intended to be a single platform for social content integrating most of the social media features. Moreover, the meaning to the term "All-in-one enterprise social platform could be better understood if it is break down into meaningful contents. For instance, "All-in-one'' as a content, "enterprise" as a content and "social platform" as a content. According to [http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform Technodepia], social platform means a web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social technology solutions and services. To further understand this definition, it is important to ask what are the social technology solutions and services? From my understanding, the social technology solutions include email, blog, wiki, social network, instant messaging, content hosting, video conference, podcast and so on. it is very hard to find a social platform with all these solutions or applications. Integrate all these solutions into on one solution platform makes it 'all in one'. <ref> http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform </ref> As for the Enterprise, we all know what it means. == References == <references/> 49a9f3e82c66c14755612d42166a87ed18d1640f 468 461 2014-09-26T14:00:02Z Shilpak Khanke 3383095 wikitext text/x-wiki '''What are Social Platforms?''' A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services.[http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform] It provides tools and techniques to create social media websites and its services with all social network services. Some of the big social media platforms today are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.[https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/socialmedia.html]This platforms are used to everywhere today. We see companies employing social media for promoting there products and services. This platforms are important for enterprises in a business point of view. == What is all-in-one Social platform? == '''All-in-one social platform.''' The social tool which is intended to be a single platform for social content integrating most of the social media features. Moreover, the meaning to the term "All-in-one enterprise social platform could be better understood if it is break down into meaningful contents. For instance, "All-in-one'' as a content, "enterprise" as a content and "social platform" as a content. According to [http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform Technodepia], social platform means a web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social technology solutions and services. To further understand this definition, it is important to ask what are the social technology solutions and services? From my understanding, the social technology solutions include email, blog, wiki, social network, instant messaging, content hosting, video conference, podcast and so on. it is very hard to find a social platform with all these solutions or applications. Integrate all these solutions into on one solution platform makes it 'all in one'. <ref> http://www.techopedia.com/definition/23759/social-platform </ref> As for the Enterprise, we all know what it means. . == References == <references/> 78d52428d635d84f58a431eafc64d850ae606685 0 30 462 449 2014-09-26T13:56:34Z Achmad Viyanto 3383220 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Books24x7, Inc (2011). Social media for business: 101 ways to grow your business without wasting your time. Gulf Breeze, FL. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 3056223279fbe5925c096b17abf8164fd1df5ee4 465 462 2014-09-26T13:57:39Z Achmad Viyanto 3383220 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social media for business: 101 ways to grow your business without wasting your time. Gulf Breeze, FL. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 9894fd1da30a77278952309261afd3f9431eb853 467 465 2014-09-26T13:59:45Z Achmad Viyanto 3383220 /* Business Aspects */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. According to [Sweeney and Craig]http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=36111&chunkid=685349452&rowid=51 (2011), some social media will have a great future when those integrated with marketing. Some social media will help the marketing are to the next level. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social media for business: 101 ways to grow your business without wasting your time. Gulf Breeze, FL. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 1408f95d8f31fa10856c7fd9c0efc256341817dd 471 467 2014-09-26T14:01:01Z Achmad Viyanto 3383220 /* Business Aspects */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. According to Sweeney and Craig [http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=36111&chunkid=685349452&rowid=51] (2011), some social media will have a great future when those integrated with marketing. Some social media will help the marketing are to the next level. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social media for business: 101 ways to grow your business without wasting your time. Gulf Breeze, FL. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 56aaa5e9c8d1284963a9e95e58cb5812c5d880ca 473 471 2014-09-26T15:41:38Z Achmad Viyanto 3383220 /* Business Aspects */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. As an example of the Yammer success stories in business field is a success story experienced by Deloitte [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte]. The technique [http://jamesdellow.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/deloittes-90-day-implementation-plan-for-yammer/] performed by Deloitte using Yammer is one of the well-known social media success stories in the business areas. This situation was predicted to going bigger and more beneficial for the business value in the future. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. According to Sweeney and Craig [http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=36111&chunkid=685349452&rowid=51] (2011), some social media will have a great future when those integrated with marketing. Some social media will help the marketing are to the next level. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social media for business: 101 ways to grow your business without wasting your time. Gulf Breeze, FL. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 773c4fe24016114942167d3e0509e781e6e1943b 474 473 2014-09-26T17:20:04Z Achmad Viyanto 3383220 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. As an example of the Yammer success stories in business field is a success story experienced by Deloitte [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte]. The technique [http://jamesdellow.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/deloittes-90-day-implementation-plan-for-yammer/] performed by Deloitte using Yammer is one of the well-known social media success stories in the business areas. This situation was predicted to going bigger and more beneficial for the business value in the future. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. According to Sweeney and Craig [http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=36111&chunkid=685349452&rowid=51] (2011), some social media will have a great future when those integrated with marketing. Some social media will help the marketing are to the next level. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social media for business: 101 ways to grow your business without wasting your time. Gulf Breeze, FL: Independent Publishers Group, Maximum Press. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 a4ed1802b8b094ff97f8a8145745d9c124628cc2 475 474 2014-09-26T17:20:54Z Achmad Viyanto 3383220 /* References */ wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. As an example of the Yammer success stories in business field is a success story experienced by Deloitte [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte]. The technique [http://jamesdellow.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/deloittes-90-day-implementation-plan-for-yammer/] performed by Deloitte using Yammer is one of the well-known social media success stories in the business areas. This situation was predicted to going bigger and more beneficial for the business value in the future. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. According to Sweeney and Craig [http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=36111&chunkid=685349452&rowid=51] (2011), some social media will have a great future when those integrated with marketing. Some social media will help the marketing are to the next level. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social Media for Business: 101 Ways to Grow Your Business Without Wasting Your Time. Gulf Breeze, FL: Independent Publishers Group, Maximum Press. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 0e6792af27ff39e621188b7679b674a8ff77b11c 480 475 2014-09-26T23:51:26Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Future of all-in-one social platforms]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki == Future of All-In-One Social Platforms == === Technology Aspects === It is intriguing to note that the advancements in technology have been on an upward trend and do not seem to have a likelihood of trending downwards any soon. With the advent of mobile technology that has brought about the introduction of smart phones and other devices such as tablets, the future of all-in-one enterprise platforms can only be expected to continue helping business connect top their stakeholders and explore new markets that they would have never accessed without the use of social media. Technological advances are expected to continue making enterprise social platforms more user-friendly and convenient such that businesses will be able to improve the experiences and satisfaction of their customers. As such, companies need to keep abreast with the latest and emerging technological inventions and innovations in order to remain at the cutting-edge of competition through the use of the most up-to-date social technologies. The information technology and communication industry all around the world is facilitating the use of both simple and complex technologies whose evolution leads to the projection that the future of all-in-one enterprise social platforms will be characterised with even more innovative ideas that will make business easier for small-, medium- and large-scale businesses. === Business Aspects === Use of enterprise social platforms is expected to increase in the coming years with many corporations expected to embrace the new technology for fast and efficient communication. Having recorded great success in their initial stages of business application, these platforms could host a huge number of business organizations as technological advancement takes over business operations <ref>Romm-Livermore, C. & Setzekorn, K. (2008). Social Networking Communities and E-Dating Services: Concepts and Implications. IGI Global. p.271</ref>. In relation to the increased use of enterprise social platforms, some business experts warn of mismanagement and breakdown of internal and external communication in business organizations if businesses rely too much on social business platforms. Enterprise platforms are likely to increase with high competition expected to increase quality of user applications. Multinational corporations are expected to rely on these platforms to reach out to various international departments and branches. Currently, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer Yammer] hosts over 200,000 companies including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Express DHL], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell Shell Oil], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgemini CapGemini] among others, a figure expected to rise sharply in the future <ref>Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with Social Media. New York, NY: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.</ref>. As an example of the Yammer success stories in business field is a success story experienced by Deloitte [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte]. The technique [http://jamesdellow.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/deloittes-90-day-implementation-plan-for-yammer/] performed by Deloitte using Yammer is one of the well-known social media success stories in the business areas. This situation was predicted to going bigger and more beneficial for the business value in the future. Despite some limitations and obstacles, all-in-one enterprise platforms seem to have a bright prospect. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner Gartner Group], in a technology evaluation report, estimates that 70% of Fortune 500 companies are in various stages of implementation because of the collaborative and productivity benefits that the platforms bring to them. It has categorized platform vendors according to their completeness of vision and their ability to execute. It notes that software giants such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_SE SAP], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware VMWare] and others are acquiring expertise in these platforms, which augurs well for their future <ref> Drakos, N., Mann, J., & Gotta, M. (2013). Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. Gartner, Inc. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2587020/magic-quadrant-social-software-workplace</ref>. According to Sweeney and Craig [http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=36111&chunkid=685349452&rowid=51] (2011), some social media will have a great future when those integrated with marketing. Some social media will help the marketing are to the next level. === Social Aspects === The hype in the social networking field has totally unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise. The hype in the social networking field has unearthed a new era into ideas to promote internal collaboration into enterprises. Social technology has revolutionized the manner in which consumers interact, and enterprises aim towards harnessing that inclination towards enhanced collaboration and communication within the enterprise.<ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> Social technologies create wonders for enterprises. It enhances productivity. The importance of the benefits of All-in-one enterprise social platform is to be highly collaborative by integrating social technologies into the systems of the enterprise and related processes that employees use on a day-to-day basis. For instance, allowing to comment, instant messaging keeps employees in the whole organization connected and the communication is not lost. It allows free-flowing interchange of ideas which is otherwise not present in a legacy platform. It enables business partners and colleagues to share learning and knowledge with great ease. <ref name="smith">Michael Biltz, (2013). "The Future of Enterprise Collaboration is Social – and Seamless" information retrieved from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/technology-blog/archive/2013/04/02/future-enterprise-collaboration-social.aspx</ref> The modern society is continuously being interconnected through social media platforms ranging from websites to mobile applications. What this means for the all-in-one enterprise platforms is that the future of doing business and interacting with potential and actual clients from around the world is heavily dependent on the sociability of the targeted audience. Given that the world is becoming more and more social through close connections among people in far-off locations on the globe, the enterprise platform will be a useful tool for connecting a business to its stakeholders and clients all over the world in the near future. Experts indicate that the future of doing business will depend on how popular a business is on social media platforms, which justifies the need for improvement of social networking strategies of organisations to determine the future growth of their businesses <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. Furthermore, some studies state that around 5 billion online devices in the world, and this number is projected to be more than 20 billion web-connected devices <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. This means, we will live in intelligence word and connected environment to communicate with others easily. That is why all social tools might use one interface and combine them together to affect our lifestyle and collaboration <ref name="smith">Smith, D. A. (2010). Social Networks, The next generation Global Futures and Foresight. 1-41. Available from: http://gregmaciag.typepad.com/ACORD2020/Social%20Networking%20-%20Next%20Generation.pdf</ref>. In addition, Gartner has identified a potential danger in over emphasizing social technology and not the real human factors that determine the successful integration of these tools into an organization. The human factors identified by [Gartner] are leadership and relationships. [Gartner] pointed out that while some technological products can be integrated through a push approach by training staff on how to use it and expecting them to use the technology, the case is different for an enterprise social platform which requires a pull approach to be able to reap its benefits. You can click on [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] to return to the main page of this Wiki to learn more about all-in-one platforms. == References == <references/> 5. Rob van der Meulen (2013). Top Technology Predictions for 2013 and Beyond. Gartner. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2319215 6. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social Media for Business: 101 Ways to Grow Your Business Without Wasting Your Time. Gulf Breeze, FL: Independent Publishers Group, Maximum Press. Retrieved September 26, 2014 from http://library.books24x7.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/toc.aspx?site=BPNPJ&bookid=36111 0e6792af27ff39e621188b7679b674a8ff77b11c 0 38 464 2014-09-26T13:57:13Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 zyncro wikitext text/x-wiki Launched in Spain in 2009, Zyncro is a social (and mobile) business platform with an array of customization options for internal collaboration and communication. Through the site, you can create file management, task assignments and execution, and a contacts directory.<ref name="zyn">Perez, A. A look at Zyncro: the first European Enterprise Social Network [Internet]. simply-communicate.com; 2013[cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/enterprise-social-media/look-zyncro-first-european-enterprise-social-network</ref> ==Impact== Zyncro is used by a big variety of customers spanning 28 nations, Zyncro affords opportunities for a wide variety of businesses and customers, in banking and financial services, insurance, retail, hospitality, IT, HR, Public Administration and Healthcare, Engineering and Automotive, and NGO sectors.<ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==The Zyncro deployment method== [http://www2.deloitte.com/view/en_GX/global/industries/technology-media-telecommunications/tmt-predictions-2013/tmt-predictions-2013-technology/8925e716bfcdb310VgnVCM3000003456f70aRCRD.html#.UdL5r4UmzV0 Deloitte] predicts that by the end of 2013, 90% of the Fortune 500 companies will have implemented an Enterprise Social Network. Zyncro developed a method which describes how to implement an ESN in 8 steps:<ref name="zyn" /> 1. Pilot phase: first define what you want to achieve with a corporate network and how you want to achieve it. Once you’ve got that, start to influence and sell the idea internally to your organisation leaders. 2. Create a cross-disciplinary team involving the triad of cultural change: IT allies, HR and Communication/Marketing experts. 3. Design a model, picture your current organisation and measure your 2.0 web culture. Then, align your business goals with better communication, collaboration and social business. 4. Define objectives, the type of platform and draw up a style guide with best user practices. 5. Test proof of concept with ambassadors. Involve as many persons as needed to check, validate and verify the implementation of the platform. 6. Deploy an internal communications and training plan for the whole organisation to influence and engage users to use the new platform. 7. Consolidate the strategy online and offline, informing, entertaining and engaging people. 8. Monitor and measure your success: analyse the KPI’s according to your initial business goals. ==References== <references /> 4c74512f19f74bfb89f801896ee10e4e1069cc33 469 464 2014-09-26T14:00:02Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 zyncro wikitext text/x-wiki Launched in Spain in 2009, Zyncro is a social (and mobile) business platform with an array of customization options for internal collaboration and communication. Through the site, you can create file management, task assignments and execution, and a contacts directory.<ref name="zyn">Perez, A. A look at Zyncro: the first European Enterprise Social Network [Internet]. simply-communicate.com; 2013[cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/enterprise-social-media/look-zyncro-first-european-enterprise-social-network</ref> ==Impact== Zyncro is used by a big variety of customers spanning 28 nations, Zyncro affords opportunities for a wide variety of businesses and customers, in banking and financial services, insurance, retail, hospitality, IT, HR, Public Administration and Healthcare, Engineering and Automotive, and NGO sectors.<ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==The Zyncro deployment method== [http://www2.deloitte.com/view/en_GX/global/industries/technology-media-telecommunications/tmt-predictions-2013/tmt-predictions-2013-technology/8925e716bfcdb310VgnVCM3000003456f70aRCRD.html#.UdL5r4UmzV0 Deloitte] predicts that by the end of 2013, 90% of the Fortune 500 companies will have implemented an Enterprise Social Network. Zyncro developed a method which describes how to implement an ESN in 8 steps:<ref name="zyn" /> 1. Pilot phase: first define what you want to achieve with a corporate network and how you want to achieve it. Once you’ve got that, start to influence and sell the idea internally to your organisation leaders. 2. Create a cross-disciplinary team involving the triad of cultural change: IT allies, HR and Communication/Marketing experts. 3. Design a model, picture your current organisation and measure your 2.0 web culture. Then, align your business goals with better communication, collaboration and social business. 4. Define objectives, the type of platform and draw up a style guide with best user practices. 5. Test proof of concept with ambassadors. Involve as many persons as needed to check, validate and verify the implementation of the platform. 6. Deploy an internal communications and training plan for the whole organisation to influence and engage users to use the new platform. 7. Consolidate the strategy online and offline, informing, entertaining and engaging people. 8. Monitor and measure your success: analyse the KPI’s according to your initial business goals. ==References== <references /> 470a7fc7250171e8911bb733529e00501b9296ec 484 469 2014-09-26T23:53:51Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Zyncro]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki Launched in Spain in 2009, Zyncro is a social (and mobile) business platform with an array of customization options for internal collaboration and communication. Through the site, you can create file management, task assignments and execution, and a contacts directory.<ref name="zyn">Perez, A. A look at Zyncro: the first European Enterprise Social Network [Internet]. simply-communicate.com; 2013[cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/enterprise-social-media/look-zyncro-first-european-enterprise-social-network</ref> ==Impact== Zyncro is used by a big variety of customers spanning 28 nations, Zyncro affords opportunities for a wide variety of businesses and customers, in banking and financial services, insurance, retail, hospitality, IT, HR, Public Administration and Healthcare, Engineering and Automotive, and NGO sectors.<ref> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> ==The Zyncro deployment method== [http://www2.deloitte.com/view/en_GX/global/industries/technology-media-telecommunications/tmt-predictions-2013/tmt-predictions-2013-technology/8925e716bfcdb310VgnVCM3000003456f70aRCRD.html#.UdL5r4UmzV0 Deloitte] predicts that by the end of 2013, 90% of the Fortune 500 companies will have implemented an Enterprise Social Network. Zyncro developed a method which describes how to implement an ESN in 8 steps:<ref name="zyn" /> 1. Pilot phase: first define what you want to achieve with a corporate network and how you want to achieve it. Once you’ve got that, start to influence and sell the idea internally to your organisation leaders. 2. Create a cross-disciplinary team involving the triad of cultural change: IT allies, HR and Communication/Marketing experts. 3. Design a model, picture your current organisation and measure your 2.0 web culture. Then, align your business goals with better communication, collaboration and social business. 4. Define objectives, the type of platform and draw up a style guide with best user practices. 5. Test proof of concept with ambassadors. Involve as many persons as needed to check, validate and verify the implementation of the platform. 6. Deploy an internal communications and training plan for the whole organisation to influence and engage users to use the new platform. 7. Consolidate the strategy online and offline, informing, entertaining and engaging people. 8. Monitor and measure your success: analyse the KPI’s according to your initial business goals. ==References== <references /> 470a7fc7250171e8911bb733529e00501b9296ec 0 5 466 452 2014-09-26T13:58:06Z Karen Paola Mendoza Sanchez Moreno 3383083 /* "All-in-one" enterprise social platform */ wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' =="All-in-one" enterprise social platform== This wiki contains useful information about "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms", including its definition, features, benefits, challenges, major players/stakeholders, some successful and failed cases and its future. '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms]''' '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms The case studies of enterprise social platforms]''' page is created. The page gives a brief of successful and unsuccessful implementations of enterprise social platforms in different organisations around the World. Please [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms click here] to visit the page. To read more about the social, technology and business aspects on the future of Enterprise Social Platforms, please go to the page '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Future_of_all-in-one_social_platforms Future of All-in-one Social Platforms].''' Pages have been created for 3 of the most important All-in-one social platforms used by companies, that do not have a Wikipedia page. *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Tibbr Tibbr] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Chatter Salesforce Chatter] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Radian6_Buddy_Media_Social_Studio Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] Additionally, there have been created pages about [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Convo Convo] and [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Zyncro Zyncro]. For more All-in-one social platforms refer to the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform#List_of_all-in-one_enterprise_social_platforms List of all-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms] ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. aacbc98831aeace1a01e25e9e3a8ab071440bb47 477 466 2014-09-26T23:50:08Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Main Page]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki '''"Social Platforms: The dream of a connected and social enterprise, but what is the reality for the new generation of all-in-one platforms?"''' =="All-in-one" enterprise social platform== This wiki contains useful information about "All-in-one" enterprise social platforms", including its definition, features, benefits, challenges, major players/stakeholders, some successful and failed cases and its future. '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform "all-in-one" enterprise social platforms]''' '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms The case studies of enterprise social platforms]''' page is created. The page gives a brief of successful and unsuccessful implementations of enterprise social platforms in different organisations around the World. Please [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Case_studies_of_enterprise_social_platforms click here] to visit the page. To read more about the social, technology and business aspects on the future of Enterprise Social Platforms, please go to the page '''[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Future_of_all-in-one_social_platforms Future of All-in-one Social Platforms].''' Pages have been created for 3 of the most important All-in-one social platforms used by companies, that do not have a Wikipedia page. *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Tibbr Tibbr] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Chatter Salesforce Chatter] *[http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Radian6_Buddy_Media_Social_Studio Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] Additionally, there have been created pages about [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Convo Convo] and [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Zyncro Zyncro]. For more All-in-one social platforms refer to the [http://inn346.shoutwiki.com/wiki/All-in-one_enterprise_social_platform#List_of_all-in-one_enterprise_social_platforms List of all-in-one Enterprise Social Platforms] ==Further Information (Do Not Remove)== This wiki will remain open for contributions until the '''Portfolio 2 submission deadline''' after which editing will be locked. '''Please read the [[INN346_Wiki:About|About]] page''' which outlines more details of this activity. Don't forget that each article has an associated "discussion page". Perhaps begin by discussing who you are writing the article for, what the article is to achieve (objectives), and what are the questions that need answering to create a great article. Consult the following sources for information on using the MediaWiki software (it's what Wikipedia uses): * [[Help:Contents| Wiki Help]] * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikipedia Cheatsheet] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite#Usage Usage instructions on using the installed "Cite"] extension for reference in articles. * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] If you are brand new to wiki's perhaps watch this useful introduction to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY how a wiki works]. aacbc98831aeace1a01e25e9e3a8ab071440bb47 0 20 481 404 2014-09-26T23:52:24Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Tibbr]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Tibbr.png|500px|thumb|right|Tibbr profile]] Developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO Software], Tibbr is a social networking platform that enables employees, customers, and partners to interact with each other – and with information located in any system. <ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> The profile layout is similar to Facebook, with space to list professional skills, past projects and people you've worked with. You can follow topics, people, apps and project updates, then see who else follows similar subjects. Enterprise apps like Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are integrated on the Tibbr social network, as well as personal apps like Box, Evernote and LinkedIn (accessible through the App Marketplace). <ref name="mashable">Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Tibbr can be deployed from a company's corporate data center, or through a cloud environment hosted by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software TIBCO]. <ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref> ==Features<ref name="tibco"> Tibco. TIBBR: Social Collaboration [Internet]. Tibco. Available from: http://www.tibco.com/products/social/social-collaboration]</ref>== *'''Contextual'''. With its unique approach, tibbr allows information to be organized by subject or topic. Leveraging its highly customizable structure and classification system, you can tailor an information model and hierarchy that works best for the business and workforce. *'''Relevant'''. As not all topics matter equally to each person, tibbr allows users to create, contribute, and subscribe to the event streams that matter most to their roles and interests. Users also have complete control of the frequency in which they receive notifications – right down to the individual subject. *'''Integrated'''. Information from any existing application can be mapped to specific subjects. Instead of constantly checking different systems or calling someone for updates, tibbr can instantly notify you and your team of the change you are looking for. *'''Accessible'''. Whether at home, on the move, or at work, users can publish and receive tibbr updates anytime, anywhere. Sharing information has never been so easy. *'''Secure'''. Whether for use on-premise or hosted in a cloud environment by TIBCO, tibbr is designed to meet all your data security needs. Integration is quick and simple – often only requiring a few hours – and ensures all data storage and user access points meet enterprise-level security, compliance, and audit requirements. Tibbr recently integrated third-party meeting and video chat service, so you can use Skype, WebEx or Google Hangouts directly through the Tibbr interface. ==Licenses== Tibbr licenses start at $12 per user per month, for either the on-premise or cloud-based version of the product, with per seat pricing declining with volume. The company offers a free 60 day trial, but does not offer an ongoing freemium option, because, as Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing, has said in the past, “Yammer does that for us.” As overconfident as this may sound, the fact that as of April 2013, 75 percent of all Tibbr users had switched from Yammer seems to back up the claim. <ref name="pando">Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> ==Tibbr's impact== Tibbr has grown from 1.5 million paid users to 6.5 million paid users between 2012 and 2013, and now has users in 7,000 global cities. By comparison, Yammer had just 800,000 paid users when it sold to Microsoft in 2012. <ref name="pando">Carney, M. For Tibbr, social is the center of the enterprise universe, and it’s got three new apps to prove it [Internet]. PandoDaily; 2013. Available from: http://pando.com/2013/10/16/for-tibbr-social-is-the-center-of-the-enterprise-universe-and-its-got-three-new-apps-to-prove-it/</ref> Companies that are using Tibbr, include<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref>: * [http://www.macys.com/ Macy's] * [http://www.ihealthlabs.com/ iHealth] * [http://interportpolice.org/ InterPortPolice] ==Devices== All Tibbr's features are available across desktop, Web, and mobile, with support for the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms from 2,100 distinct mobile device models.<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> To read more about other Enterprise Social Networks, please go to [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]] ==References== <references /> 0fcb3311237d7ebed88d79e7d5011118c8a8f427 0 32 482 405 2014-09-26T23:52:44Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Chatter]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Chatter.png|400px|thumb|right|Salesforce Chatter text]] [https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ Salesforce Chatter] was developed internally by [http://www.salesforce.com/au/?ir=1 salesforce.com] and was further developed following the acquisition of a small company called GroupSwim, in 2009, which was based out of San Francisco and Sweden. Salesforce Chatter was made generally available in 2010.<ref name="gartner"> Sussin, J., Maoz, M. Moving On Up: Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SAP's Social Applications for CRM [Internet]. Gartner Inc.; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2852217?srcId=1-2819006590&pcp=itg</ref> ==Functionality== Chatter's functionality includes features such as profiles, status updates, activity feeds and file sharing, and it is available for several mobile devices.<ref name="gartner" /> Chatter let's employees stay in contact with everyone in the workplace. Only people that have a corporate e-mail account can join the network. <ref name="complex">Scott, D. What is Chatter.com? [Internet]. Complex.; 2011 [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/02/what-is-chatter-com </ref> To see a demo on how Salesforce Chatter works, follow the link to the video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsK2nXp-fWs#t=88 Salesforce.com: Get Started with Salesforce Chatter - A New Way to Collaborate] ==Licenses and Cost== Chatter is free for companies that have implemented one CRM license, with up to 5000 employees.<ref name="mashable"> Fee, J. 10 Enterprise Networks to Improve Company Communication [Internet]. Mashable.com; 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 23]. Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/enterprise-social-networks/ </ref> Chatter Plus is a level up from Chatter and includes additional CRM features within Chatter. For example, account information and workflow, as well as the ability for customizations and integrations with apps from the salesforce.com AppExchange. Chatter Plus has an extra per-user cost per month. <ref name="gartner" /> Chatter Plus integrates social collaboration and costs $15 per user/month.<ref name="mashable" /> ==Successful implementations== Companies that currently use Salesforce include General Electric, Bayer Universal, Commonwealth Bank and NBC Universal. <ref>Salesforce. Customer stories [Internet]. Salesforce. [cited 2014 Sep 26]. Available from: https://www.salesforce.com/chatter/overview/ </ref> More success stories available in [https://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatterhttps://www.salesforce.com/customers/?d=70130000000tGP4&internal=true#sort=chatter Salesforce page] To read about success stories of implementation, please go to [[Case studies of enterprise social platforms]]. To know more about [[All-in-one enterprise social platform]], follow the link. ==Refereces== <references/> 9033cab4bf4841d72e5b76bb2cdf0f3ff1a92472 0 25 483 302 2014-09-26T23:52:55Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]]": Leadership Activity is complete. ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:R6BMSS.png|600px|thumb|right|Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio]] [http://www.exacttarget.com/products/social-media-marketing Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] comes from the acquisition spree that brought [http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/social-media-listening/ Radian6], [http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/social-media-publishing/ Buddy Media], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExactTarget ExactTarget] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com Salesforce]. It is a platform for social content marketing, engagement, publishing and analytics, built for both enterprise scale and consumer ease of use, that allows collaboration between marketers. <ref> LeBrun, M. Introducing Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio [Internet]. ExactTarget Marketing Cloud Blog; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/radian6-buddymedia-socialstudio-launch/</ref> ==How does it work== Social Studio draws tech strengths from Radian6 including social customer monitoring and engagement as well as management across multiple social channels. Buddy Media was acquired for its social campaign management capabilities, and its IP shows up in Social Studio workflows, approvals, and governance around managing and publishing content and responding to customers engaging with that content. <ref>Henschen, D. Salesforce.com Social Studio Blends Buddy Media, Radian6 [Internet]. InformationWeek Connecting the Business Technology Community; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/software-as-a-service/salesforcecom-social-studio-blends-buddy-media-radian6/d/d-id/1251027 </ref> The following video demonstrates how the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5r4NfidJE Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio] works in an organisation environment. ==Features== The product includes collaborative workspaces and calendars, content creation and scheduling, integrated engagement monitoring, and enhanced analytics that can monitor content performance by label, campaigns, or any particular target. It also includes a mobile version, so that marketers never have to stop marketing. <ref> Kuchinskas, S.Radian6 and Buddy Media United as Social Studio [Internet]. ClickZ Marketing News & Expert Advice; 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 25]. Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2343096/radian6-and-buddy-media-united-as-social-studio </ref> ==Partnerships and Cost== Radian6 Buddy Media Social Studio is an open platform that lets developers, independent software vendors, customers, or partners build their own applications on top of it. The platform is launching with several vendor partnerships that the company says will make it easier for marketers to discover content. They are Getty Images, Kontera, Nexgate, Pressly, Rallyverse, Shutterstock, ShopIgniter, and TrendSpottr. Marketers still need to set up licenses with individual partners before accessing them via the platform. The platform is generally available and free to current customers of Buddy Media, ExactTarget, or Radian6. Pricing starts at $1,500 per month. ==References== <references /> a35732f12e7f735094dd0e54c6b17fc572071095 0 28 486 344 2014-09-26T23:55:58Z Callam Porch 3383056 Protected "[[Eni enterprise social platform]]" ([Edit=Allow only administrators] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only administrators] (indefinite)) [cascading] wikitext text/x-wiki Enterprise 2.0 is the implementation of Web 2.0 tools inside organisations as it is defined by McAfee <ref>McAfee, A. (2009). Enterprise 2.0: New collaborative tools for your organization's toughest challenges. Harvard Business Press.</ref>. This implementation should be done based on case studies to have a positive return on investments (ROI) which is considered as "the most common measure for the value-added benefits" <ref>Phillips, P. P., & Phillips, J. J. (2007). Return on investment (pp. 823-846). John Wiley & Sons, Inc..</ref>. According to Philip and Philip, ROI is used as a methodology to measure many business activities and work environment. Collaboration is considered as one of those activities measured by ROI. So, this blog is going to focus on ROI in terms of knowledge management and collaboration in one of the biggest energy organisations worldwide which is Eni. Eni is an Italian oil and gas company and it operates in 70 countries worldwide with 76,000 employees. Its adjusted net earnings is amounted to US$14.6 billion (Microsoft Case Study, 2014). Eni uses knowledge management system as it is committed in leading initiatives of renewable energies <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2013). KM versus enterprise 2.0: a framework to tame the clash. International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 12(3), 320-336.</ref>. In addition, it considers the knowledge management as an effective tool to get the advantage of the available knowledge inside the organisation and to help develop the professional staff working for the company. The Oil and Gas companies pay tens of millions yearly to a third party to do researches in the field of Oil and Gas to find sufficient ways in oil explorations and delivery either to their plant or to customers. It is considered as a big cost to those organisations at the end regardless the benefits they get out of this. Eni found that introducing knowledge to its employees through a well designed system and getting their knowledge and share it through the same system will enhance the work and work as corporate culture catalyst. This has been helping the company solving many issues that are related to their business field. == Brief overview of the Enterprise 2.0 project == Knowledge management systems (KM) is embraced and used by big companies in different business areas such as computers, automobiles, oil, and aviation by implementing Web 2.0 applications such as blogs, twitter, youtube, Facebook and other social networking tools<ref>Grace, T. P. L. (2009). Wikis as a knowledge management tool. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(4), 64-74.</ref>. If we come to Eni, it uses Microsoft technologies which is Microsoft SharePoint to achieve its collaboration and knowledge management needs through systemising the current knowledge and getting a new knowledge from its employee to be spread to the public within the organisation. Eni does the implementation of enterprise 2.0 in different stages to get a successful KM. It started with Communities of Practice (CoP) which is the use of collaboration and portal tools that are integrated with the business process of the organisation (www.eni.com, 2014). CoP gives the opportunity for employees -being in different communities- to share their expertise and experience on their company issues to support their company business process <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>. In addition, the company started the introduction of the Knowledge Owner into its system to support its business positioning in the oil and gas market. The idea is to have those well-know figures in their field by having their solid knowledge gained over a long successful period of time to be shared with Eni's employees through the system and other communication channels <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>. So, Eni is aware of the strong impact the social media has in terms of collaboration and knowledge management. Thus, Eni implemented social media to reduce the project processing time and increasing productivity and performance of the company by inviting its employee to use the social media through having their own profiles, posts, sharing documents, post their own blogs, and posting their ideas to improve the business process and work environment in their organisation <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>. == Return On Investment == In terms of tangible benefits, Eni have been investing in Enterprise 2.0 in purpose to have a effective knowledge management that in turn helps have a efficient collaboration internal and external. The results proves the success of this implementation by the tangible and intangible results. The implementation of Communities of Practice helped get "an increase in production equals to tens of thousands of barrels was obtained at zero cost" <ref>Microsoft Case Study: Microsoft Sharepoint Server - Eni. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server/Eni/Microsoft-SharePoint-Shines-For-Eni-s-Collaboration-Needs/4000006412</ref>. In addition, the ROI for the knowledge management platform equaled 25 times the cost of the project itself with 20% increase in revenues in second year <ref>Microsoft Case Study: Microsoft Sharepoint Server - Eni. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server/Eni/Microsoft-SharePoint-Shines-For-Eni-s-Collaboration-Needs/4000006412</ref>. For example, to support these figures, the company had a problem in Pakistan and it got solved by their office in Venezuela in less than 24 hours by a successful collaboration. This incident helped Eni save a lot of money to the company assets. In terms of intangible benefits, as the knowledge management system is accessible by all organisation levels, there is a fast responding to changes and all levels help to give a positive contribution to get a valuable advantage <ref>Microsoft Case Study: Microsoft Sharepoint Server - Eni. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server/Eni/Microsoft-SharePoint-Shines-For-Eni-s-Collaboration-Needs/4000006412</ref>. The social media also helped increase employees contributions because it was designed based on their needs too so it was trusted by those employees. Moreover, the knowledge exchange process was dynamic in all aspects such as analysis, participation, innovation, enthusiastic reaction <ref>Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(2), 255-277.</ref>.. According to McKinsey, this kind of collaborations help the company overcome most issues and help increase the performance and productivity of the whole organisation<ref>McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy : Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, (July).</ref>. == References == <references/> 5c54225edec1a7ef9b4eabc3a6996715196f60bd